Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record

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Herbivores
Deposit feeders
Suspension feeders
Carnivores
Life site and activity
Primary
production
Primary
consumers
Primary/secondary
consumers
Primary/secondary
consumers
Secondary/tertiary
consumers
Phytoplankton
(b)
Sea surface
(c)
(a)
Plankton
and
nekton
(a)
Sediment surface
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
(d)
(e)
(c)
(d)
(b)
Nektobenthos
Shallow
Deep
Epifauna
Infauna
Active
or passive
Figure 4.10 Trophic groups, activity of members and their life sites. 1, Primary producers:
phytoplankton in surface waters with (a) cyanobacteria and (b) benthic algae. 2, Herbivores: browsing
and grazing gastropods. 3, Deposit feeders: (a) deposit-feeding gastropod and (b) shallow infaunal
bivalve. 4, Suspension feeders: (a) semi-infaunal, byssally-attached bivalve, (b) shallow infaunal bivalve,
(c) crinoid, (d) epifaunal bivalve, and (e) deep infaunal bivalve. 5, Carnivores: (a) nektonic fishes, (b)
nekton-benthic fishes, (c) epifaunal gastropod, and (d) infaunal gastropod. (From Brenchley & Harper
1998.)
rain of live plankton / organic detritus
bivalves
carnivores
bryozoans
forams
brachiopods
corals
sponges
(a)
zoo / phytoplankton
suspension feeders
carnivores
placoderms
dead organic plankton detritus
ostracodes
cephalopods
gastropods
labial palp
deposit feeders
phyllocarids
polychaetes
trilobites
asterozoans
organic detritus
deposit feeders
carnivores
(b)
Figure 4.11 Reconstructions of two different food chain communities. (a) A community with a
suspension-feeding food chain, displaying a variety of suspension feeders, collecting food in different
ways (bivalves with a mucous trap or setae, bryozoans and brachiopods with lophophores,
foraminiferans with cilia, corals with tentacles, and sponges with flagellae). (b) A community with a
detritus-feeding food chain dominated by various types of bottom-dwelling deposit feeders and nektonic
carnivores represented by a cephalopod and placoderm. (From Copper 1988.)