Spatial distribution of oncocerid cephalopods on a Middle Devonian bedding plane suggests semelparous life cycle.

ABSTRACT: Reproductive strategies of extinct organisms can only be recognised indirectly and hence, they are exceedingly rarely reported and tend to be speculative. Here, we present a mass-occurrence with common preservation of pairs of late Givetian (Middle Devonian) oncocerid cephalopods from Hamar Laghdad in the Tafilalt (eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco). We analysed their spatial occurrences with spatial point pattern analysis techniques and Monte Carlo simulations; our results shows that the pairwise clustering is significant, while ammonoids on the same bedding plane reveal a more random distribution. It is possible that processes such as catastrophic mass mortality or post-mortem transport could have produced the pattern. However, we suggest that it is more likely that the oncocerids were semelpa

SUBMITTER: Pohle A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7029046 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature