WIGLEY and STINTON: REMAINS FROM MARINE SEDIMENTS 



tributed the greatest number of species. Thirty- 

 six percent of the species and 87 ?f of all otoliths 

 were Myctophiformes. The six most abundant 

 fish, based on otolith identifications, were: Cer- 

 atoscopelus maderensis, Citharichthys tarcti- 

 frons, Diaphus sp.-4, Lepdphidium cervinum, 

 Merluccius bilinearis, and Myctophum sp. The 

 estimated length of the fish whose remains were 

 encountered ranged from a few centimeters to 

 several meters. Remains of fish were at depths 

 between 38 and 567 m, and an overwhelming ma- 

 jority was found at depths greater than 150 m. 

 More than 909^ of the otoliths were at depths 

 below the 150-m isobath ; bones were less com- 

 mon and more uniformly distributed, from 38 to 

 366 m. The remarkably high otolith density of 

 3,030/m2 was found near the edge of the conti- 

 nental shelf south of Nantucket Shoals. Remains 

 of most individual species were geographically 

 distributed in east-west bands across the area, 

 generally oriented parallel to the isobaths. Fish 

 remains were absent in coarse-grained sedi- 

 ments, and most abundant in fine sands and 

 silt-clay. 



CRUSTACEANS AND COELENTERATES 



Crustaceans and coelenterates were the only 

 other nonmolluscan invertebrates, in addition to 

 those previously described, that were present in 

 the samples. The quantity of their remains was 

 very small. 



Crustaceans were generally sparse and rather 

 widely distributed. Cirripedes consisted exclu- 

 sively of shells of sessile forms; they were geo- 

 graphically scattered and were taken at all 

 depths sampled. Cirripedes were only slightly 

 more common in shallow water than in deep 

 water. They were one of the few animal groups 

 whose remains occurred in coarse-grained sedi- 

 ments. Fragments of skeletons of anomurans 

 and brachyurans were encountered only in the 

 midcontinental shelf in sediments primarily of 

 silts and fine sands. They were collected between 

 51 and 113 m. Densities were low, from 10 to 

 70/m^ 



Remains of coelenterates occurred in low den- 

 sities (10 to 80/m^) and were geographically 

 restricted to small areas in the south-central and 



southwestern sectors. Two genera — both corals 

 —were represented, Acanella (?) (at 90 to 

 97 m) and Flabellum (between 146 and 366 m). 

 Both kinds were restricted to fine-textured sed- 

 iments. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The staflF members of the Northeast Fisheries 

 Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 Woods Hole, Mass., who aided in collecting and 

 processing the samples are: Harriett E. Mur- 

 ray, Samuel R. Nickerson, Ruth R. Stoddard, 

 and Roger B. Theroux. Officers and crew of 

 RV Delaware assisted in collecting the samples, 

 Arthur S. Merrill, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service ; Earl Reed, Museum of Science, Spring- 

 field, Mass.; and Roger B. Theroux, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, identified mollusks; 

 Malcolm R. Clarke, National Institute of Ocean- 

 ography, Wormley, England, contributed infor- 

 mation regarding cephalopods; and Richard H. 

 Backus and James E. Craddock, Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass., 

 identified fish and provided reference specimens 

 for otolith identification. K. 0. Emery, Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, 

 Mass., provided information on bottom sedi- 

 ments and suggestions for improving the man- 

 uscript. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Belyaev, G. M. 



1970. The rostra of squids in the bottom sediments 

 of the Pacific Ocean. [In Russian, English 

 summ.] Tr. Inst. Okeanol. Akad. Nauk SSSR 88: 

 236-251. 

 Belyaev, G. M., and L. S. Glikman. 



1970. The teeth of sharks on the floor of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean. [In Russian, English summ.] Tr. 

 Inst. Okeanol. Akad. Nauk SSSR 88:252-276. 

 BiGELOW, H. B. 



1927. Physical oceanography of the Gulf of Maine. 

 U.S. Bur. Fish., Bull. 40(2) :511-1027. 



1933. Studies of the waters on the continental 

 shelf, Cape Cod to Chesapeake Bay, I. The cycle 

 of temperature. Pap. Phys. Oceanogr. Meteorol. 

 2:1-135. 

 Brongersma-Sanders, M. 



1949. On the occurrence of fish remains in fossil 

 and recent marine deposits. Bijdr. Dierkd. 28: 

 65-76. 



39 



