Publication Date:
2021-04-25
Description:
Sponges and coralomorphs were sessile epibenthic suspension feeders living in normal
marine environments. Sponges with calcified skeletons, induding archaeocyaths,
mainly inhabited shallow to subtidal and intertidal domains, while other sponges
occupied a variety of depths, including slopes. The high diversity .of sponges in many
Cambrian Lagerstätten suggests that complex tiering and niche partitioning were established
early in the Cambrian. Hexactinellida were widespread in shallow-water
conditions from the Tommotian; some of them may have been restricted to deepwater
environments later in the Cambrian. Calcareans (pharetronids), together with
solitary coralomorphs, thrived in reef environments, mostly in cryptic niChes protected
from very agitated waters. Rigid demosponges (anthaspidellids and possible
axinellids) appeared by the end of the Early Cambrian and inhabited hardgrounds
and reefs from the Middle Cambrian. The overall diversity of sponge and coralomorph
types indicates that during the Cambrian these groups, like other metazoans,
evolved a variety of architectural fonns not observed in subsequent periods.
Keywords:
551
;
VU 000
;
38.20
Language:
English
Type:
anthologyArticle
,
publishedVersion
Format:
301-325
Format:
application/pdf
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