Bioerosion

Sponge borings and encrusters on a modern bivalve shell, North Carolina.

Bioerosion describes the erosion of hard ocean substrates – and less often terrestrial substrates – by living organisms. Marine bioerosion can be caused by mollusks, polychaete worms, phoronids, sponges, crustaceans, echinoids, and fish; it can occur on coastlines, on coral reefs, and on ships; its mechanisms include biotic boring, drilling, rasping, and scraping. On dry land, bioerosion is typically performed by pioneer plants or plant-like organisms such as lichen, and mostly chemical (e.g. by acidic secretions on limestone) or mechanical (e.g. by roots growing into cracks) in nature.

Bioerosion is also well known in the fossil record on shells and hardgrounds (Bromley, 1970), with traces of this activity stretching back well into the Precambrian (Taylor & Wilson, 2003). Macrobioerosion, which produces borings visible to the naked eye, shows two distinct evolutionary radiations. One was in the Middle Ordovician (the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution; see Wilson & Palmer, 2006) and the other in the Jurassic (see Taylor & Wilson, 2003; Bromley, 2004; Wilson, 2007). Microbioerosion also has a long fossil record and its own radiations (see Glaub & Vogel, 2004; Glaub et al., 2007).

Trypanites borings in an Upper Ordovician hardground, southeastern Indiana; see Wilson and Palmer (2001).

Petroxestes borings in an Upper Ordovician hardground, southern Ohio; see Wilson and Palmer (2006).

Gastrochaenolites borings in a Middle Jurassic hardground, southern Utah; see Wilson and Palmer (1994).

Numerous borings in a Cretaceous cobble, Faringdon, England; see Wilson (1986).

Cross-section of a Jurassic rockground; borings include Gastrochaenolites (some with boring bivalves in place) and Trypanites; Mendip Hills, England; scale bar = 1 cm.

Teredolites borings in a modern wharf piling; the work of bivalves known as "shipworms".

Ordovician hardground cross-section with Trypanites borings filled with dolomite; southern Ohio.

References

• Bellwood, D. R. (1995). "Direct estimate of bioerosion by two parrotfish species, Chlorurus gibbus and C. sordidus, on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia". Marine Biology 121: 419–429. doi:10.1007/BF00349451. 

• Bromley, R. G (1970). "Borings as trace fossils and Entobia cretacea Portlock as an example". in Crimes, T.P. and Harper, J.C. (eds.). Trace Fossils. Geological Journal Special Issue 3. pp. 49–90. 

• Bromley, R. G. (2004). "A stratigraphy of marine bioerosion". in D. McIlroy (ed.). The application of ichnology to palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic analysis. Geological Society of London Special Publications 228. London: Geological Society. pp. 455–481. ISBN 1862391548. 

• Glaub, I.; Golubic, S., Gektidis, M., Radtke, G. and Vogel, K. (2007). "Microborings and microbial endoliths: geological implications". in Miller III, W (ed). Trace fossils: concepts, problems, prospects. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 368–381. ISBN 0444529497. 

• Glaub, I.; Vogel, K. (2004). "The stratigraphic record of microborings". Fossils & Strata 51: 126–135. ISSN 0300-9491. 

• Palmer, T. J. (1982). "Cambrian to Cretaceous changes in hardground communities". Lethaia 15: 309–323. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1982.tb01696.x. 

• Taylor, P. D.; Wilson, M. A. (2003). "Palaeoecology and evolution of marine hard substrate communities". Earth-Science Reviews 62 (1-2): 1–103. doi:10.1016/S0012-8252(02)00131-9. http://www.wooster.edu/geology/Taylor%26Wilson2003.pdf. 

• Wilson, M. A. (1986). "Coelobites and spatial refuges in a Lower Cretaceous cobble-dwelling hardground fauna". Palaeontology 29: 691–703. ISSN 0031-0239. 

• Wilson, M. A. (2007). "Macroborings and the evolution of bioerosion". in Miller III, W (ed). Trace fossils: concepts, problems, prospects. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 356–367. ISBN 0444529497. 

• Wilson, M. A.; Palmer, T. J. (1994). "A carbonate hardground in the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, SW Utah, USA) and its associated encrusters, borers and nestlers". Ichnos 3: 79–87. doi:10.1080/10420949409386375. 

• Wilson, M. A.; Palmer, T. J. (2001). "Domiciles, not predatory borings: a simpler explanation of the holes in Ordovician shells analyzed by Kaplan and Baumiller, 2000". Palaios 16 (5): 524–525. doi:10.1669/0883-1351(2001)016<0524:DNPBAS>2.0.CO;2. 

• Wilson, M. A.; Palmer, T. J. (2006). "Patterns and processes in the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution". Ichnos 13: 109–112. doi:10.1080/10420940600850505. http://www.wooster.edu/geology/WilsonPalmer06.pdf. 

External links

• Bioerosion Website at The College of Wooster