Aspects of the ecology and paleoecology of the BrachiopodNotosaria nigricans(Sowerby)

Abstract

The black, ribbed rhynchonellide brachiopod Notosaria nigricans (Sowerby, 1846) has a widespread though patchy distribution in New Zealand shelf waters from North Cape to Stewart Island, including Chatham Islands. It is also common as a fossil in New Zealand from Mid-Miocene times to the present. The living brachiopod occurs on rocky and shelly substrates from intertidal depths to 800 m. It forms part of a characteristic community dominated by filter-feeders includi.ng other brachiopod species, bivalves, barnacles, bryozoans, sponges, ascidians, and polychaete worms. The shell is often asymmetric because of the crowded mode of life where juveniles attach to adults of the same species. Size-frequency distributions in living populations are multimodal; in assemblages of dead and fossil shells juveniles are rarely encountered. A checklist of fossil and Recent localities is given for the species.