57th Annual Report on Research 2012 Under Sponsorship of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund

Late Paleozoic fusuline foraminifera are thought to have hosted photosymbionts, as do modern larger foraminifera, but the ancient host-symbiont relationship has never been demonstrated conclusively. Among modern larger foraminifera, deeper-dwelling species exhibit large surface-to-volume ratios in order to maximize the amount of sunlight that can be captured for use by photosymbionts. Shallower-dwelling species exhibit smaller surface-to-volume ratios in order to limit incoming sunlight, especially ultraviolet radiation. If modern symbiont-bearing foraminifera are appropriate analogues for fusulines, then deeper-dwelling fusulines ought to exhibit larger surface-to-volume ratios than shallower-dwelling ones. This prediction was tested by analyzing fusuline shells from the Virgilian (Upper Pennsylvanian) Oread, Lecompton and Deer Creek cyclothems in Kansas. Specimens from deeper-water “middle” limestones exhibit significantly larger surface-to-volume ratios than those from regressive “upper” limestones, and specimens with the smallest surface-to-volume ratios occur in shoaling deposits at or near the tops of regressive limestones. Shell shape does not vary predictably with depth of habitat. Rather, changes in surface-to-volume ratio were accomplished mainly by changes in size, with larger shells always characterized by smaller ratios. The observed trend is significantly non-random with respect to depth of habitat (p = 0.012). The trend is not likely the result of hydrodynamic adaptation, postmortem size sorting or size decrease along a bottom oxygen gradient. It most likely reflects geometric optimization for photosymbiosis.