The control of coal bed decollement-related slickensides on roof falls in North American Late Paleozoic coal basins

2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 207
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Coal Bed ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Roof Falls

scholarly journals The effects of geographic range size and abundance on extinction during a time of “sluggish”’ evolution

Paleobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Casey ◽  
Erin E. Saupe ◽  
Bruce S. Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
The North ◽  
Geographic Range Size ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Habitat Tracking

Abstract Geographic range size and abundance are important determinants of extinction risk in fossil and extant taxa. However, the relationship between these variables and extinction risk has not been tested extensively during evolutionarily “quiescent” times of low extinction and speciation in the fossil record. Here we examine the influence of geographic range size and abundance on extinction risk during the late Paleozoic (Mississippian–Permian), a time of “sluggish” evolution when global rates of origination and extinction were roughly half those of other Paleozoic intervals. Analyses used spatiotemporal occurrences for 164 brachiopod species from the North American midcontinent. We found abundance to be a better predictor of extinction risk than measures of geographic range size. Moreover, species exhibited reductions in abundance before their extinction but did not display contractions in geographic range size. The weak relationship between geographic range size and extinction in this time and place may reflect the relative preponderance of larger-ranged taxa combined with the physiographic conditions of the region that allowed for easy habitat tracking that dampened both extinction and speciation. These conditions led to a prolonged period (19–25 Myr) during which standard macroevolutionary rules did not apply.

Eclogitic rocks in the St. Cyr klippe, Yukon, and their tectonic significance

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1296-1304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Erdmer
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Oceanic Crust ◽  
North American ◽  
Suture Zone ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
The North ◽  
Tectonic Significance ◽  
Subducted Oceanic Crust ◽  
Ophiolitic Rocks ◽  
Subducting Slab

Until recently, the Nisutlin allochthonous assemblage, a part of the Yukon–Tanana composite terrane interpreted as trench mélange from a late Paleozoic – Mesozoic arc system, was the only tectonic assemblage known to include subducted material in the northern Cordillera. The discovery of eclogitic rocks in two parts of a klippe of the Anvil allochthonous assemblage, which comprises mafic ophiolitic rocks, above the Cassiar terrane west of the Tintina fault confirms other evidence that subducted oceanic crust was also returned to the surface. The eclogitic rocks have been largely retrograded by postsubduction metamorphism. Their existence is interpreted as additional evidence of the link between nappes above the Cassiar terrane and their inferred root, the Teslin suture zone. The Nisutlin and Anvil allochthonous assemblages can now be interpreted, not simply as crustally metamorphosed assemblages with minor, structurally interleaved high-pressure components, but as deeply metamorphosed and intensely strained slices of continental and oceanic crust switched from subducting slab to overriding plate and returned to the surface during collision of the arc with the North American margin.

scholarly journals Using GIS to examine biogeographic and macroevolutionary patterns in some late Paleozoic cephalopods from the North American Midcontinent Sea

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla M. Kolis ◽  
Bruce S. Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
Cephalopod Species ◽  
The North ◽  
Geographic Range Size

Geographic range is an important macroevolutionary parameter frequently considered in paleontological studies as species’ distributions and range sizes are determined by a variety of biotic and abiotic factors well known to affect the differential birth and death of species. Thus, considering how distributions and range sizes fluctuate over time can provide important insight into evolutionary dynamics. This study uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and analyses of evolutionary rates to examine how in some species within the Cephalopoda, an important pelagic clade, geographic range size and rates of speciation and extinction changed throughout the Pennsylvanian and early Permian in the North American Midcontinent Sea. This period is particularly interesting for biogeographic and evolutionary studies because it is characterized by repetitive interglacial-glacial cycles, a global transition from an icehouse to a greenhouse climate during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, and decelerated macroevolutionary dynamics, i.e. low speciation and extinction rates. The analyses presented herein indicate that cephalopod species diversity was not completely static and actually fluctuated throughout the Pennsylvanian and early Permian, matching findings from other studies. However, contrary to some other studies, the mean geographic ranges of cephalopod species did not change significantly through time, despite numerous climate oscillations; further, geographic range size did not correlate with rates of speciation and extinction. These results suggest that pelagic organisms may have responded differently to late Paleozoic climate changes than benthic organisms, although additional consideration of this issue is needed. Finally, these results indicate that, at least in the case of cephalopods, macroevolution during the late Paleozoic was more dynamic than previously characterized, and patterns may have varied across different clades during this interval.

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