Ostracoda and palaeo-oxygen levels, with particular reference to the Upper Cretaceous of East Anglia

• Published in: Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology Vol. 194; no. 4; pp. 355 - 386
• Main Authors: Whatley, Robin C., Pyne, Rebecca S., Wilkinson, Ian P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 25-05-2003
• Subjects: East Anglia; filter feeders; Metacopina; Ostracoda; palaeo-oxygen; Upper Cretaceous; British Isles, England, East Anglia; East Anglia; filter feeders; Upper Cretaceous; palaeo-oxygen; Ostracoda
• ISSN: 0031-0182; 1872-616X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0031-0182(03)00333-X

It has been shown that the percentage of Platycopina (the sole remaining group of filter-feeding Ostracoda since the global extinction of the Metacopina in the Lower Toarcian) making up a fossil ostracod fauna can be used as a measure of dissolved oxygen in past oceans. High levels of platycopids indicate low oxygen and vice versa. A new scale is introduced here, based mainly on the environmental oxygen levels of modern oceans and their equivalent percentages of living platycopids, in order to evaluate the palaeo-oxygen levels of the Upper Chalk in East Anglia. The effects of varying oxygen concentrations on the overall simple species diversity of the Ostracoda is also shown to have important palaeoenvironmental implications. The study is based on 79 samples from the Santonian to Lower Maastrichtian of the Trunch Borehole and 126 samples from outcrops in Suffolk and Norfolk, ranging from the Coniacian to Lower Maastrichtian. The Coniacian is shown to have been a time of low to very low oxygen, except for its upper part that was much better ventilated. The Santonian and Lower Campanian were low to very low in their dissolved oxygen, while the Upper Campanian and particularly the Lower Maastrichtian had much higher oxygen levels. Notwithstanding these general trends, oxygen levels appear to have fluctuated rapidly throughout the interval, during times of both generally low and high oxygenation. These variations in oxygenation are thought to have been associated with the Oxygen Minimum Zone and its migrations onto the continental shelf and subsequent retreat to the continental slope. This in turn is related to sea-level fluctuations and this, together with the potential for the application of this technique to sequence stratigraphy are discussed.