Dear Annelid experts,
I am an paleoceanographer seeking advice regarding 4 tube worm fossil
samples collected from Holocene (<10kyr old) sediments on the Icelandic
shelf (about 200 m water depth).
Firstly, I am seeking help in identifying the specimens. Would anyone
recommend a text book which could aid me or if anyone has the time or
inclination and would like to have a go themselves - I have attached some
stills of the samples.
Secondly, I'm seeking advice on a couple of specific issues regarding the life
modes of the specimens. I wish to use the calcium carbonate tubes for
radiocarbon dating. However the dating facility I am working with has not
used tube worms for this purpose previously and therefore there are several
criteria that need to satisfied before we can date them with confidence.
The concerns are:
- The mechanism by which the organism constructs the tube i.e. does the
organism precipitate the carbonate itself? (vital for our needs)or does it
collect carbonate detritus from it's environs an stick it together with a
biological glue (an aggultinated form)?
- Does the organism dwell at the sediment surface (preferable) or at depth?
If anyone can help with the above questions it would be much appreciated.
regards
James Bendle
<j.a.bendle at durham.ac.uk>
-- ANNELIDA LIST
Discuss = <annelida at net.bio.net> = talk to all members
Server = <biosci-server at net.bio.net> = un/subscribes
Archives = http://www.bio.net/hypermail/annelida/
Resources = http://www.annelida.net/
--
