The earliest giant Osprioneides borings from the Sandbian (late ordovician) of Estonia

Olev Vinn; Mark A Wilson; Mari-Ann Mõtus

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099455

The earliest giant Osprioneides borings from the Sandbian (late ordovician) of Estonia

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 5;9(6):e99455. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099455. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Olev Vinn¹, Mark A Wilson², Mari-Ann Mõtus³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
² Department of Geology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, United States of America.
³ Institute of Geology, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia.

Abstract

The earliest Osprioneides kampto borings were found in bryozoan colonies of Sandbian age from northern Estonia (Baltica). The Ordovician was a time of great increase in the quantities of hard substrate removed by single trace makers. Increased predation pressure was most likely the driving force behind the infaunalization of larger invertebrates such as the Osprioneides trace makers in the Ordovician. It is possible that the Osprioneides borer originated in Baltica or in other paleocontinents outside of North America.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
Estonia
Fossils*
Geography*
Invertebrates
Paleontology

Grants and funding

O.V. is indebted to the Sepkoski Grant program (Paleontological Society), Estonian Science Foundation grant ETF9064, Estonian Research Council grant IUT20-34 and a target-financed project from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (SF0180051s08; Ordovician and Silurian climate changes, as documented from the biotic changes and depositional environments in the Baltoscandian Palaeobasin) for financial support. M-A.M was also supported by a target-financed project from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (SF0140020s08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.