Late Devonian marine ecology and zoogeography of the central Appalachians and New York

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Abstract
Ecological and statistical analyses of the Late Frasnian (Lake Devonian) fauna of the Java Group of New York reveals the presence of three benthic marine communities. Using sedimentological and stratigraphic criteria, the Java Group may be divided into five physical-environmental zones: nearshore marine, platform, prodelta, open shelf, and slope and basin. The Ambocoelia-Cariniferella, Tylothyris-schizophoria and Cyrtospirifer-Douvillina communities inhabited open shelf, outer platform-prodelta, and inner platform-nearshore habitats, respectively. Java species gradient curve overlap each other continuously and species optima replace each other in a regular fashion along onshore-offshore environmental gradient. No evidence for competitive exclusion between species sharp habitat discontinuites (ecotones) is seen for Java ecosystems. The same 3-fold division of communities, in equivalent habitats, can be seen in central Appalachian marineenvironments located approximately 500 km away along the ancient shoreline. The distribution of communities in this region appears to be directly related to the position and relative size of fluviodeltaic systems along the 500 km of ancient coastline.