Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria: (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology)

Polycystine radiolaria are exclusively marine protists and are found in all ocean waters, from polar regions to the tropics, and at all water depths. There are approximately 600 distinct described living species and several thousand fossil species of polycystines. Radiolarians in general, and polycystines in particular, have recently been shown to be a major component of the living plankton and important to the oceanic carbon cycle. As fossils radiolarians are also fairly common, and often occur in sediments where other types of fossils are absent. This has made them very valuable for certain types of geologic research, particularly estimating the geologic age of the sediments containing them, and as guides to past oceanic water conditions. As our current understanding of the biology, and even taxonomy of the living fauna is still very incomplete, evolutionary studies based on living polycystines are still rare. However, the common occurrence of numerous specimens for many species, and in a wide variety of oceanic environments, provides an excellent opportunity to study the processes of biologic evolution in the fossil record.  Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria is the first major book on radiolarians to appear in the western literature since 2001. Focusing on living and fossil siliceous shelled radiolarians, it is notable for its emphasis not upon morphologic or taxonomic detail but on concepts and applications. The book attempts to provide a balanced, critical review of what is known of the biology, ecology, and fossil record of the group, as well as their use in evolutionary, biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic research. Full chapters on the history of study, and molecular biology, are the first ever in book form.   Written for an audience of advanced undergraduate to doctoral students, as well as for a broad range of professionals in the biological and Earth sciences, Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria summarizes current understanding of the marine planktonic protist group polycystine radiolaria, both in living and fossil form.   

Table of Contents:
Preface xi Acknowledgements xv Chapter 1 History 1 Introduction 1 Scientific Context 4 Early Studies (First Half of the Nineteenth Century) 8 C.G. Ehrenberg and J. Müller 8 Second Half of the Nineteenth Century to ca. 1920 13 E. Haeckel and his Disciples 13 Legacy of Early Studies 16 Early Twentieth Century (ca. 1920–1940) 17 The Early New Period (ca. 1940–1970) 20 The Origins of Radiolarian Biostratigraphy: 1940s to 1950s 20 Deep-Sea Drilling 21 Taxonomy 25 Biology 27 Mid New Period (1970–2000) 28 Current Period (2000-Present) 37 Chapter 2 Biology 41 General Characteristics of Planktonic Protist Biology 41 Physical Characteristics of the Pelagic Ocean 42 Plankton Taxa 46 Ecologic and Behavioral Constraints due to Small Body Size 46 Basic Radiolarian Cellular Structure 48 Skeleton 53 Skeleton Formation and Growth 55 Size 59 Colonial Forms 59 Life Cycle 60 Longevity 62 Motility 63 Feeding 63 Predators 65 Abundance and Role in Carbon Cycle 66 Symbiosis 67 Bioluminescence 68 Summary 69 Chapter 3 Ecology 71 Introduction 71 Biogeography 75 Vertical Distribution 83 Tropical Submergence 86 Longitudinal Gradients and Upwelling Assemblages 89 Latitudinal Gradients 90 Coastal Gradients 90 Seasonal Variability 91 Interannual Variability 93 Chapter 4 Genetics 95 Introduction 95 Molecular Phylogenetic Position of “Radiolarians” within Eukaryotes 96 Molecular Studies of Radiolarian’s Position within Eukaryotes 97 Relationships of Radiolarian Clades 98 Origination Times of Radiolarian Clades 102 Family-Level Phylogeny 102 Spumellaria (Shell-Bearing Radiolarians) 105 Collodaria (Colonial or Naked Radiolarians) 105 Nassellaria 106 Acantharia 107 Microevolution of Radiolaria 107 Diversity of Pico-Radiolarian Material 111 Transcriptomics of Radiolaria 112 Methodology 113 DNA Extraction 114 Reproductive Cell Method 114 Dissecting Cell Method 114 PCR 114 Summary 114 Chapter 5 Taxonomy and Fossil Record 117 Introduction 117 PART 1 - Radiolarian Taxonomy 118 Principles of Species-Level Taxonomy 118 Rules for Describing and Naming Species 121 Current Status of Descriptive Radiolarian Taxonomy 124 Principles of Higher-Level Taxonomy 129 Haeckel and the Beginnings of Higher-Level Radiolarian Taxonomy 129 Biologic Systematics 132 Higher-Level Taxonomy in Radiolaria 134 The Observational Basis of Taxonomy: Structures of the Radiolarian Shell 136 Higher-Level Taxonomy in this Book 139 Formal Classification of Polycystina 143 Cenozoic Taxa 143 Order Spumellaria Ehrenberg 1876 143 Family Actinommidae Haeckel 1862 145 Family Heliodiscidae Haeckel 1881 149 Family Coccodiscidae Haeckel 1862, emend. Sanfilippo and Riedel 1980 151 Family Pyloniidae Haeckel 1881 153 Family Lithelidae Haeckel 1862 155 Family Tholonidae Haeckel 1887 156 Family Spongodiscidae Haeckel 1862 156 Order Nassellaria Ehrenberg 1876 160 Family Plagiacanthidae Hertwig 1879 162 Family Trissocyclidae (Haeckel) Goll 1968 [superfamily Acanthodesmiacea] 163 Family Theoperidae Haeckel 1881 163 Family Artostrobiidae Riedel 1967 167 Family Pterocoryithidae (Haeckel) Moore 1972 167 Family Carpocaniidae (Haeckel) Riedel, 1967 [Carpocaniinae] 171 Family Cannobotryidae Haeckel, 1881 173 Superfamily Collodaria 173 Family Collosphaeridae Müller, 1858 175 Family Sphaerozoidae Haeckel, 1862 175 Family Collophidiidae Biard and Suzuki, in Biard et al., 2015 177 Order Entactinaria 183 Family Orosphaeridae Haeckel, 1887 183 Family Saturnalidae Deflandre 1953 184 Mesozoic and Paleozoic Taxa 185 Species-Level Variation in Radiolaria 185 PART 2 - Summary of the Radiolarian Fossil Record 193 Cambrian and Ordovician 194 Silurian to the Lower Carboniferous 195 Late Paleozoic to Late Mesozoic Siliceous Sedimentation 196 Mass Extinctions at the End of the Paleozoic Era 197 Basal Mesozoic Scarcity of Radiolarian Fossils and Faunal Turnover (Early Triassic) 200 Triassic 201 Triassic–Jurassic Boundary Mass Extinction 204 Jurassic 205 Early and Middle Jurassic Radiolaria 205 Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous 208 Cretaceous 208 The K/T Extinction Event and Early Paleocene 212 Cenozoic 214 Chapter 6 Preservation and Methods 217 Introduction 217 Preservation 218 Geographic Variation in Preservation 222 Diagenesis 222 Loss of Rock Record 224 Differences between Modern and Ancient Oceans 224 Quality of Radiolarian Fossil Record 225 Methods 227 Collecting Material from the Water Column 228 Collecting Sediments 231 Collecting Lithified Material from Sections on Land 236 Recovering Radiolarians from Samples 238 Extracting Radiolarians with Intact Protoplasm 238 Extracting Radiolarian Skeletons 238 Separation of Radiolarians from other Chemically Resistant Similar-Sized Components of Residue 242 Mounting Radiolarians 243 Live Preparations 245 Dissection and Serial Sectioning 246 Imaging Radiolarians 247 Visualization (enhanced imagery) 248 Morphometrics 249 Automatic Identification 249 Chapter 7 Paleoceanography 253 Introduction 253 Radiolarians as Tracers of Water Masses 259 Assemblage-Based Methods of Paleoceanographic Analysis 259 Non-temperature Uses of Assemblage Analyses 268 Radiolarians in Bulk: Summary Indices and Non-Taxonomic Uses of Radiolarians in Paleoceanography 273 Chapter 8 Radiolarian Biostratigraphy 281 Introduction 281 Biostratigraphy in Shallow Marine Rocks: General Aspects 283 Biostratigraphy in Deep-Sea Sediment Sections 285 Other Types of Geochronologic Information 287 Radiometric Dating and Absolute Age 287 Paleomagnetic Stratigraphy 288 Stable Isotope Stratigraphy 290 Cyclostratigraphy 291 Quantitative Biostratigraphy 292 Cenozoic Radiolarian Stratigraphy 295 History of Development 296 Tropical Cenozoic Radiolarian Stratigraphy 297 Subtropical North Atlantic to Arctic 299 North Pacific 302 Southern Ocean 305 History 305 Characteristics 307 Important Sections 307 Important Species 307 Mesozoic Radiolarian Stratigraphy 308 Cretaceous 308 Europe and Southwest North America 311 Low-Latitude Western part of Mesotethys 311 Mid-Ltitude Northern Part of Mesotethys 311 Russian Epicontinental Seas 312 East Margin of the Mid-Latitude Pacific 312 Northwest Pacific 312 Other Regions 313 The Jurassic–Cretaceous Boundary (Tithonian–Berriasian Boundary) 313 Jurassic 314 Middle and Late Jurassic 314 Lower Jurassic 316 Triassic–Jurassic Boundary 316 Triassic 316 Latest Triassic (Rhaetian) 317 Carnian and Norian 318 Late Olenekian to Ladinian 318 Basal Triassic (Induan) and Permian–Triassic (P–T) boundary 318 Paleozoic Radiolarian Stratigraphy 319 Permian 319 Carboniferous 321 Devonian and Silurian 321 Ordovician and Cambrian 325 Chapter 9 Evolution 327 Introduction and General Principles 327 Features of the Deep-Sea Microfossil Record Relevant to the Study of Evolution 330 Microevolution 331 Pattern and Processes 332 Examples of Microevolution 333 Cladogenesis 333 Anagenesis 339 Extinction 344 Hybridization 344 Macroevolution 346 Definitions and Theory 346 Theories of Diversity and Evolution 348 Macroevolutionary Patterns in Radiolaria 349 Origin of Radiolarians 349 Origin of Collodaria and Colonial Radiolaria 352 Origin of Higher Taxa within Radiolaria – General Comments 354 Diversity History of Radiolarians 354 Methods of Diversity Reconstruction 354 Other Problems of Diversity Reconstruction 358 Data for Diversity Reconstruction 358 Global Phanerozoic Diversity 358 Paleozoic 363 Mesozoic 364 Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary 368 Cenozoic 372 Other Aspects of Cenozoic Radiolarian Macroevolutionary Change 382 Phanerozoic Diversity – A More Modest View 386 Summary Discussion 388 References 393 Index 461

About the Author :
About the Editors David Lazarus has studied the paleobiology and earth science applications of Cenozoic radiolaria for more than 40 years, formerly holding research positions at Columbia University/Lamont Earth Observatory, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. He is currently Curator for Micropaleontology at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Noritoshi Suzuki has studied the taxonomy and species diversity of radiolarians thoughout the Phanerozoic. He started his career in field geology, switched to Devonian radiolarians for his Masters degree, and received his PhD degree for a study of Cenozoic radiolarians from Tohoku University, Japan. He has co-published a monograph on the radiolarians of the Ehrenberg Collection (Berlin), and has published integrative studies of radiolarian morphology and phylogenetics. He is currently Associate Professor at Tohoku University. Yoshiyuki Ishitani is a paleobiologist, focusing on the evolution of radiolarians. He is currently a researcher at the University of Tsukuba, and was formerly at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Glasgow University, and the University of Tokyo. Kozo Takahashi has studied the distribution and ecology of radiolarians and other siliceous plankton collected from ocean waters for several decades. Following an early career of staff scientist positions at the Woods Hole and Scripps oceanographic institutions he held multiple professorships in Japan, including universities in Sapporo and Kyushu University in Fukuoka.

Review :
“Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria is well worth the purchase price and should be in the personal library of all protistologists working on marine forms.” Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology “A welcome addition to the literature in a field that is rich in potential for interdisciplinary research.” Journal of Plankton Research