The use of experimental palaeontology in reproducing the effects of diagenetic flattening on graptolites

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Abstract
The detailed effects of diagenetic flattening on the graptolite rhabdosome were investigated experimentally. The initial procedure to test the effects of flattening on cylinders constructed from a variety of semi-brittle to plastic materials when compressed in a plaster matrix was demonstrate: a degree of rigidity is necessary to prevent lateral spread on diagenetic compression, even when lateral confining pressures are present. A 2nd experiment demonstrates that the effects of flattening on the thecal style of Dicellograptus complanatus proposed by Briggs et Williams (1981) can be simulated. A model of an aseptate diplograptid produced a median depression when compressed but no preservational median septum, which is considered to be produced in several diplograptid taxa. Some diplograptids spread laterally along a median line when flattened in scalariform orientation, although this has not yet been achieved experimentally owing to the high degree of compression required.

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