[Taxacom] Potential leftover from a Permian sea

[John Grehan]

Panbiogeographic studies have led to a number of historical ecological
models, one of which is the concept of stranding - that formerly coastal
organisms may get stranded inland, for example, as the coastline is lifted
up tectonically. Another is when a habitat 'sinks' as a marine habitat
becomes subterranean, or it is buried by sediments that later become
terrestrial leaving the formerly marine organisms now trapped deep beneath
the surface. Just how deep this process might go was indicated by a 2015
paper that just came to my attention where organisms (nematodes and
bacteria) were found at depths of 1.3 to 3.1 km in South Africa.

The authors note the marine affinities of some of the organisms extracted
from stalactites and suggest the now subterranean organisms were originally
marine. They even speculate on the possibility that their origins lie with
the former Karroo Sea in the Permian. Whatever one might think of this
particular instance, it is not without precedent (other than the depth
perhaps) and certainly illustrative of the concept.

Article at
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00833/full

John Grehan