Trepostome bryozoans buck the trend and ignore calcite-aragonite seas

Abstract

AbstractTrepostome bryozoan skeletalisation did not passively respond to changes in seawater chemistry associated with calcite-aragonite seas. According to Stanley and others, trepostome bryozoans were passive hypercalcifiers. However, if this was the case, we would expect their degree of calcitic colony calcification to have decreased across the Calcite I Sea to the Aragonite II Sea at its transition in the Middle Mississippian. Data from the type species of all 184 trepostome genera from the Early Ordovician to the Late Triassic were utilised to calculate the Bryozoan Skeletal Index (BSI) as a proxy for the degree of calcification. BSI values and genus-level diversity did not decrease across the transition from the Calcite I Sea to the Aragonite II Sea. Nor were there any changes in the number of genus originations and extinctions. This suggests that trepostome bryozoans were not passive hypercalcifiers but active biomineralisers that controlled the mineralogy and robustness of their skeletons regardless of changes in seawater chemistry.