scholarly journals Carbonate shelf development and early Paleozoic benthic diversity in Baltica: a hierarchical diversity partitioning approach using brachiopod data

Paleobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Amelia M. Penny ◽  
Olle Hints ◽  
Björn Kröger
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Regional Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
Temporal Turnover ◽  
Climatic Cooling ◽  
Regional Diversification ◽  
Tectonic Movements ◽  
Eastern Baltic ◽  
Water Facies

Abstract The Ordovician–Silurian (~485–419 Ma) was a time of considerable evolutionary upheaval, encompassing both great evolutionary diversification and one of the first major mass extinctions. The Ordovician diversification coincided with global climatic cooling and paleocontinental collision, the ecological impacts of which were mediated by region-specific processes including substrate changes, biotic invasions, and tectonic movements. From the Sandbian–Katian (~453 Ma) onward, an extensive carbonate shelf developed in the eastern Baltic paleobasin in response to a tectonic shift to tropical latitudes and an increase in the abundance of calcareous macroorganisms. We quantify the contributions of environmental differentiation and temporal turnover to regional diversity through the Ordovician and Silurian, using brachiopod occurrences from the more shallow-water facies belts of the eastern Baltic paleobasin, an epicontinental sea on the Baltica paleocontinent. The results are consistent with carbonate shelf development as a driver of Ordovician regional diversification, both by enhancing broadscale differentiation between shallow- and deep-marine environments and by generating heterogeneous carbonate environments that allowed increasing numbers of brachiopod genera to coexist. However, temporal turnover also contributed significantly to apparent regional diversity, particularly in the Middle–Late Ordovician.

Early Triassic (Spathian) post-extinction microconchids from western Pangea

2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Zatoń ◽  
Paul D. Taylor ◽  
Olev Vinn
Keyword(s):  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Shell Microstructure ◽  
Slow Recovery ◽  
Dominant Component ◽  
Beaver Dam ◽  
Low Diversity ◽  
Water Facies

A new microconchid tentaculitoid,Microconchus utahensisnew species, is described from the Lower Triassic (Spathian) Virgin Formation of two localities (Hurricane Cliffs and Beaver Dam Mountains) near St George, Utah. This small encrusting tubeworm, previously referred to erroneously asSpirorbis, has a laminated shell microstructure containing minute pores (punctae). The population from deeper water facies of the Beaver Dam Mountains is more abundant than that from Hurricane Cliffs and the tubes are significantly larger in size. Although represented by only one species (M. utahensis), microconchids are by far the most dominant component of the otherwise impoverished sclerobiont assemblage of the Virgin Formation, which also includes rare cemented bivalves and probable foraminifers. Whereas the remainder of the Virgin fauna is quite diverse, the low diversity of encrusters suggests a slow recovery from end-Permian mass extinctions. Indeed, more typically Mesozoic sclerobiont assemblages dominated by cyclostome bryozoans and serpulid polychaetes did not appear until the Late Triassic, probably Rhaetian.

scholarly journals Evolution caused by extreme events

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1723) ◽  
pp. 20160146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Grant ◽  
B. Rosemary Grant ◽  
Raymond B. Huey ◽  
Marc T. J. Johnson ◽  
Andrew H. Knoll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Extreme Events ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Asteroid Impact ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
Pest Outbreaks ◽  
Set Up

Extreme events can be a major driver of evolutionary change over geological and contemporary timescales. Outstanding examples are evolutionary diversification following mass extinctions caused by extreme volcanism or asteroid impact. The evolution of organisms in contemporary time is typically viewed as a gradual and incremental process that results from genetic change, environmental perturbation or both. However, contemporary environments occasionally experience strong perturbations such as heat waves, floods, hurricanes, droughts and pest outbreaks. These extreme events set up strong selection pressures on organisms, and are small-scale analogues of the dramatic changes documented in the fossil record. Because extreme events are rare, almost by definition, they are difficult to study. So far most attention has been given to their ecological rather than to their evolutionary consequences. We review several case studies of contemporary evolution in response to two types of extreme environmental perturbations, episodic (pulse) or prolonged (press). Evolution is most likely to occur when extreme events alter community composition. We encourage investigators to be prepared for evolutionary change in response to rare events during long-term field studies. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events’.

Evolution and the fossil record: patterns, rates, and processes

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 1053-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip D. Gingerich
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Evolutionary Rates ◽  
Short Intervals ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
Climatic Cooling ◽  
Intensive Sampling ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
Morphological Innovation

Mammals have an unusually good Cenozoic fossil record providing evidence of their evolutionary diversification. We view this record in hindsight, which biases our perception in many ways. Overall worldwide diversity appears to increase exponentially through time, while intensive sampling in local areas indicates that modern levels of diversity were achieved early in the Cenozoic. The evident significance of Pleistocene extinctions depends critically on how extinction rates are quantified. Our taxonomic hierarchy probably reflects the number of major faunal turnovers a group has survived rather than declining intensity of successive turnovers. Morphological innovation and taxonomic diversification appear following intervals of climatic cooling, suggesting that major features of evolution are extrinsically controlled. Favorable stratigraphic settings yield detailed records of gradual anagenesis and cladogenesis in mammals, with intermediates present as evidence of transition. The apparent dichotomy between high evolutionary rates measured by neontologists over short intervals of time and low evolutionary rates measured by paleontologists over long intervals of time disappears when rates are measured on intermediate scales of time. Microevolution and macroevolution are manifestations of common underlying processes expressed on different time scales.

scholarly journals Post-extinction recovery of the Phanerozoic oceans and the rise of biodiversity hotspots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Cermeño ◽  
Carmen García-Comas ◽  
Alexandre Pohl ◽  
Simon Williams ◽  
Michael Benton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Logistic Function ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Late Mesozoic ◽  
Global Diversity ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Regional Diversification

Abstract The fossil record of marine invertebrates has long fueled the debate on whether or not there are limits to global diversity in the sea1–4⁠. Ecological theory states that as diversity grows and ecological niches are filled, the strengthening of biological interactions imposes limits on diversity5–7⁠. However, the extent to which biological interactions have constrained the growth of diversity over evolutionary time remains an open question1–4,8–12⁠, largely because of the incompleteness and spatial heterogeneity of the fossil record13–15⁠. Here we present a regional diversification model that reproduces surprisingly well the Phanerozoic trends in the global diversity of marine invertebrates after imposing mass extinctions. We find that the dynamics of global diversity is best described by a diversification model that operates broadly within the exponential growth regime of a logistic function. A spatially resolved analysis of the diversity-to-carrying capacity ratio reveals that only < 2% of the global flooded continental area exhibits diversity levels approaching ecological saturation. We attribute the overall increase in global diversity during the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic to the development of diversity hotspots under prolonged conditions of Earth system stability and maximum continental fragmentation. We call this the "diversity hotspots hypothesis", which is proposed as a non-mutually exclusive alternative to the hypothesis that the Mesozoic marine revolution led this macroevolutionary trend16,17.

REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION OF CHANGES IN THE CONSUMPTION OF MINERAL FERTILIZERS IN POLAND

2018 ◽  
Vol XX (3) ◽  
pp. 102-107
Author(s):  
Mariusz Matyka
Keyword(s):  
Mineral Fertilizer ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Upward Trend ◽  
Regional Diversity ◽  
Central Statistical ◽  
Central Statistical Office ◽  
Regional Diversification

The aim of the paper was to determine the regional diversification of the main directions of change and the level of mineral fertilizers consumption in Poland. Source material for study was mass statistics data published by the Central Statistical Office. Among the compared provinces, the use of mineral fertilizers in 2007-2016 decreased to the largest extent in the provinces Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Wielkopolskie i Zachodniopomorskie. The strongest upward trend was found in the voivodships Lubelskie, Opolskie and Podkarpackie. Mineral fertilizer consumption in this period was characterized by a large regional diversity. The highest fertilization was used in the provinces Opolskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Dolnośląskie and Wielkopolskie, while the lowest in Małopolskie and Podkarpackie.

scholarly journals Quantifying ecological impacts of mass extinctions with network analysis of fossil communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (20) ◽  
pp. 5217-5222 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Muscente ◽  
Anirudh Prabhu ◽  
Hao Zhong ◽  
Ahmed Eleish ◽  
Michael B. Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Marine Animal ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Community Turnover ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
Animal Communities

Mass extinctions documented by the fossil record provide critical benchmarks for assessing changes through time in biodiversity and ecology. Efforts to compare biotic crises of the past and present, however, encounter difficulty because taxonomic and ecological changes are decoupled, and although various metrics exist for describing taxonomic turnover, no methods have yet been proposed to quantify the ecological impacts of extinction events. To address this issue, we apply a network-based approach to exploring the evolution of marine animal communities over the Phanerozoic Eon. Network analysis of fossil co-occurrence data enables us to identify nonrandom associations of interrelated paleocommunities. These associations, or evolutionary paleocommunities, dominated total diversity during successive intervals of relative community stasis. Community turnover occurred largely during mass extinctions and radiations, when ecological reorganization resulted in the decline of one association and the rise of another. Altogether, we identify five evolutionary paleocommunities at the generic and familial levels in addition to three ordinal associations that correspond to Sepkoski’s Cambrian, Paleozoic, and Modern evolutionary faunas. In this context, we quantify magnitudes of ecological change by measuring shifts in the representation of evolutionary paleocommunities over geologic time. Our work shows that the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event had the largest effect on ecology, followed in descending order by the Permian–Triassic, Cretaceous–Paleogene, Devonian, and Triassic–Jurassic mass extinctions. Despite its taxonomic severity, the Ordovician extinction did not strongly affect co-occurrences of taxa, affirming its limited ecological impact. Network paleoecology offers promising approaches to exploring ecological consequences of extinctions and radiations.

Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hallam
Keyword(s):  
Big Five ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Oxygen Deficiency ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Climatic Cooling

In Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities, renowned geologist Tony Hallam takes us on a tour of the Earth's history, and of the cataclysmic events, as well as the more gradual extinctions, that have punctuated life on Earth throughout the past 500 million years. While comparable books in this field of study tend to promote only one likely cause of mass extinctions, such as extraterrestrial impact, volcanism, and or climatic cooling, Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities breaks new ground, as the first book to attempt an objective coverage of all likely causes, including sea-level and climatic changes, oxygen deficiency in the oceans, volcanic activity, and extraterrestrial impact. Hallam focuses on the so-called 'big five' mass extinctions, at the end of the Ordovician, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous periods, and the later Devonian, and he also includes less well-known examples where relevant. He devotes attention especially to the attempts by geologists to distinguish true catastrophes from more gradual extinction events, and he concludes with a discussion of the evolutionary significance of mass extinctions, and on the influence of Homo sapiens in causing extinctions within the last few thousand years, both on land and in the seas.

Climate change

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hallam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Load Range ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Sedimentary Deposits ◽  
Climatic Cooling

Unlike the other factors that have been invoked to account for mass extinctions, climate change is manifest to us all, whether we travel from the tropics to the poles or experience the seasonal cycle. Over a longer timescale, the issue of global warming in the recent past and likely future, and its probable consequences for other aspects of the environment, has occupied a considerable amount of media attention. Those people who are unaware of the likely consequences of the burning of fossil fuels cannot count themselves as well educated. Over a longer timescale, geologists have been aware for many decades of significant climatic changes on a global scale leading to the appearance and disappearance of polar ice caps on a number of occasions. Steve Stanley, the distinguished palaeobiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has actively promoted the view that episodes of climatic cooling are the most likely cause of mass extinctions. However, we must consider also the significance of global warming, and for the continents, at any rate, the possible effects of changes in the humidity–aridity spectrum. Before examining the relationships between climatic change and mass extinctions we need to examine the criteria from the stratigraphic record that geologists use to determine ancient climates, or palaeo-climates. The most obvious way of detecting cold conditions in the past is to find evidence of the presence of ice. At the present day the sedimentary deposits associated with glaciers and ice sheets, which occur where melting ice dumps its rock load, range in grain size from boulders and pebbles to finely ground rock flour. Such deposits are known as boulder clay or till, and ancient examples consolidated into resistant rock as tillites. The surfaces of hard rock that have underlain substantial ice sheets bear characteristic linear striations indicating the former direction of ice movement, such as glaciers moving up or down a U-shaped valley. The striations are produced by pebbles embedded in the ice, and are a unique marker for glacial action. In the 1830s Louis Agassiz, the great Swiss naturalist, extrapolated from his knowledge of the margins of Alpine glaciers to propose that the whole of northern Europe had been covered by one or more ice sheets in the recent geological past.

The Invasion Hierarchy: Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Invasions in the Fossil Record

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 355-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alycia L. Stigall
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Differential Survival ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

Species invasions are pervasive in Earth history, yet the ecological and evolutionary consequences vary greatly. Ancient invasion events can be organized in a hierarchy of increasing invasion intensity from ephemeral invasions to globally pervasive invasive regimes. Each level exhibits emergent properties exceeding the sum of interactions at lower levels. Hierarchy levels correspond to, but do not always exactly correlate with, geographic extent of invasion success. The ecological impacts of lower-level impacts can be negligible or result in temporary community accommodation. Invasion events at moderate to high levels of the hierarchy permanently alter ecological communities, regional faunas, and global ecosystems. The prevalence of invasive species results in evolutionary changes by fostering niche evolution, differential survival of ecologically generalized taxa, faunal homogenization, and suppressing speciation. These impacts can contribute to mass extinctions and biodiversity crises that alter the trajectory of ecological and evolutionary patterns of life. The fossil record provides a long-term record of how invasion impacts may scale up through time, which can augment ecological studies of modern species invasions.

scholarly journals Ecological dynamics of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems across three mid-Phanerozoic mass extinctions from northwest China

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1947) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuangeng Huang ◽  
Zhong-Qiang Chen ◽  
Peter D. Roopnarine ◽  
Michael J. Benton ◽  
Wan Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Critical Duration ◽  
Lower Permian ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Karoo Basin

The Earth has been beset by many crises during its history, and yet comparing the ecological impacts of these mass extinctions has been difficult. Key questions concern the kinds of species that go extinct and survive, how communities rebuild in the post-extinction recovery phase, and especially how the scaling of events affects these processes. Here, we explore ecological impacts of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in three mass extinctions through the mid-Phanerozoic, a span of 121 million years (295–174 Ma). This critical duration encompasses the largest mass extinction of all time, the Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) and is flanked by two smaller crises, the Guadalupian–Lopingian (G–L) and Triassic–Jurassic (T–J) mass extinctions. Palaeocommunity dynamics modelling of 14 terrestrial and freshwater communities through a long sedimentary succession from the lower Permian to the lower Jurassic in northern Xinjiang, northwest China, shows that the P–Tr mass extinction differed from the other two in two ways: (i) ecological recovery from this extinction was prolonged and the three post-extinction communities in the Early Triassic showed low stability and highly variable and unpredictable responses to perturbation primarily following the huge losses of species, guilds and trophic space; and (ii) the G–L and T–J extinctions were each preceded by low-stability communities, but post-extinction recovery was rapid. Our results confirm the uniqueness of the P–Tr mass extinction and shed light on the trophic structure and ecological dynamics of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems across the three mid-Phanerozoic extinctions, and how complex communities respond to environmental stress and how communities recovered after the crisis. Comparisons with the coeval communities from the Karoo Basin, South Africa show that geographically and compositionally different communities of terrestrial ecosystems were affected in much the same way by the P–Tr extinction.

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