Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Revaluating The Use Of Mollusks For Estimating Paleodepth In The Pacific Northwest, E Worthington

WWU Graduate School Collection

Fossil records have the potential to extract important paleoenvironmental records, and by ground truthing our assumptions with modern mollusks we can improve our interpretations of the fossil record. Modern molluscan death assemblages from Rosario Strait were analyzed to: 1) determine to what extent the molluscan communities were controlled by grain size or depth; and 2) determine the extent to which age mixing was occurring in the death assemblage. Twenty-eight Van Veen grab samples were collected in Rosario Strait to represent range of depth and grain sizes. All samples were wet sieved to isolate mature mollusks (> 2.00 mm), and sediment …