Fossils are useful as palaeoenvironmental indicators when evaluated using large occurrence and lithology association data sets and/or functional morphology. However, when functional morphology is invoked on an ad hoc basis there exists a risk of circular reasoning. Performance spaces/landscapes constructed using biomechanical experiments can be used to tie performance to morphology quantitatively. They can be used to estimate fitness and function in specific environments by allowing multiple specific measures of function to be evaluated simultaneously. Absolute performance can be used to constrain palaeoenvironmental interpretations by detecting functional limits. We constructed a performance space with four variables (transport resistance, settling time, settling orientation and respiration potential) relating to hydrodynamic and metabolic variables. We combine new performance data with existing palaeoenvironmental interpretations and associated distributions of brachiopods of the suborder Productidina during the late Carboniferous and early Permian in the North American Midcontinent. Productidines were chosen because they lacked pedicles and relied on body and spine morphology to interact with their environment. Offshore dysoxia-associated taxa had increased resistance to sinking and proportionally larger lophophores, potentially improving survivorship in low-oxygen, soft substrate environments. Taxa associated with nearshore and oxygenated offshore environments display a range in performance consistent with a range of conditions, but all had proportionally smaller lophophores. Models that are less stable in high-velocity flows consistently settle in the correct convex down orientation if entrained, while more stable models did not. Our study suggests that as productidines radiated during the Carboniferous, they also differentiated within the performance space.

中文翻译：

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Productidine 腕足动物与环境变量相关的功能性能

当使用大的产状和岩性关联数据集和/或功能形态进行评估时，化石可用作古环境指标。但是，当在ad hoc上调用功能形态时存在循环推理的风险。使用生物力学实验构建的表演空间/景观可用于将表演与形态定量联系起来。通过允许同时评估多个特定的功能度量，它们可用于估计特定环境中的适应度和功能。绝对性能可用于通过检测功能限制来约束古环境解释。我们构建了一个性能空间，其中包含与流体动力学和代谢变量相关的四个变量（运输阻力、沉降时间、沉降方向和呼吸潜力）。我们将新的性能数据与e北美中大陆晚石炭世和早二叠世期间，产亚目腕足动物的现有古环境解释和相关分布。选择 Productidines 是因为它们没有椎弓根，并且依赖于身体和脊柱形态与环境相互作用。离岸缺氧相关的分类群对下沉和成比例的较大的细胞具有增加的抵抗力，可能会提高在低氧、软基质环境中的存活率。与近岸和含氧近海环境相关的分类群表现出与一系列条件一致的性能范围，但所有的类群都具有成比例的较小的带状体。如果被夹带，在高速流动中不太稳定的模型始终以正确的凸向下方向稳定，而更稳定的模型则没有。我们的研究表明，随着石炭纪期间产物的辐射，它们在性能空间内也有所不同。