thanatocoenose

English

WOTD – 8 February 2015

Etymology

From thanato- +‎ coenose.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θəˌnætəʊˈsiːnəʊs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

thanatocoenose (plural thanatocoenoses)

1. A collection of dead life forms that are found together, having previously interacted as a community within an ecosystem.
   • 1977, H. Löffler, D. Danielopol, Aspects of Ecology and Zoogeography of Recent and Fossil Ostracoda, page 454:

     This sort of thanatocoenose is typical of lakes with a semi-arid climate (Early Triassic period in the Kuznetsk Basin, Middle Jurassic- Lower Cretaceous of Middle Asia).

   • 1989, Hans M. Bolli, John B. Saunders, Katharina Perch-Nielsen, Plankton Stratigraphy, volume 2, page 764:

     The fossil diatom assemblage or thanatocoenose found in sediments typially represents as little as 1-5% of the original living assemblage or biocoenose.

   • 2008, R. Lee Lyman, Quantitative Paleozoology, page 23:

     Given that paleozoologists sample the geological record (i.e., where faunal remains are deposited as a particular kind of sedimentary particle), they don't always have a complete thanatocoenose lying on the lab table.

Synonyms

• thanatocoenosis, death assemblage

Related terms

• biocoenose
• phytocoenose

Translations

dead life forms found together

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生物屍積群 / 生物尸积群 (shēngwù shī jī qún), 屍積群 / 尸积群 (shī jī qún)

• Malay: tanatosenosis
• Portuguese: tanatocenose f
• Swedish: tanatocenos, thanatocoenos
• Ukrainian: танатоценоз m (tanatocenoz)