scholarly journals The Disaster Taxon Lystrosaurus: A Paleontological Myth

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. Modesto
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Opportunistic Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Tree Topologies ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Survival Interval

The term “disaster species” was a term originally conceived to describe marine microfossils that exhibited profound abundances in the wake of a biological crisis. The term was expanded in the 1990s to describe (as “disaster taxa”) opportunistic taxa that dominated their biota numerically (“bloomed”) during the survival interval of a mass extinction event. The Permo-Triassic tetrapod genus Lystrosaurus has been cited regularly as a “disaster taxon” of the end-Permian mass extinction. A review of the definitions that have been developed for disaster taxa, and data from recent biostratigraphic and phylogenetic studies that include species of Lystrosaurus, leads to the conclusion that the genus is not a “disaster taxon”. Further, the known biostratigraphy and tree topologies of species of Lystrosaurus do not satisfy more recent definitions that attribute diversification to disaster species. At most, species of Lystrosaurus that form the informal “Lystrosaurus abundant zone” in the lower Katberg Formation, Lower Triassic of South Africa, could be described as opportunistic species.

New reptile material from the Lower Triassic of Madagascar: implications for the Permian–Triassic extinction event

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary F Ketchum ◽  
Paul M Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Recently discovered reptile specimens from the "Eotriassic" deposits of Madagascar (Lower Triassic) are reported, adding valuable information to our knowledge of Malagasy faunas and providing additional data on tetrapod survivorship across the Permian–Triassic (P–T) boundary. Four specimens are attributable to the terrestrial procolophonoid Barasaurus besairiei Piveteau 1955, whereas the remainder are referable to the aquatic younginiform family Tangasauridae, including some individuals identifiable as Hovasaurus boulei Piveteau 1926. These specimens represent the geologically youngest tangasaurid and Barasaurus specimens to be described from Madagascar and suggest that these small reptiles passed unaffected through the end Permian mass extinction event, when ~78% of amniote families disappeared.

scholarly journals Subsequent biotic crises delayed marine recovery following the late Permian mass extinction event in northern Italy

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. e0172321 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Foster ◽  
Silvia Danise ◽  
Gregory D. Price ◽  
Richard J. Twitchett
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Late Permian ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Rapid marine recovery after the end-Permian mass-extinction event in the absence of marine anoxia

Geology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 805 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. Twitchett ◽  
L. Krystyn ◽  
A. Baud ◽  
J.R. Wheeley ◽  
S. Richoz
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

scholarly journals When and how did the terrestrial mid-Permian mass extinction occur? Evidence from the tetrapod record of the Karoo Basin, South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1811) ◽  
pp. 20150834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O. Day ◽  
Jahandar Ramezani ◽  
Samuel A. Bowring ◽  
Peter M. Sadler ◽  
Douglas H. Erwin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Temporal Association ◽  
Carbonate Platforms ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

A mid-Permian (Guadalupian epoch) extinction event at approximately 260 Ma has been mooted for two decades. This is based primarily on invertebrate biostratigraphy of Guadalupian–Lopingian marine carbonate platforms in southern China, which are temporally constrained by correlation to the associated Emeishan Large Igneous Province (LIP). Despite attempts to identify a similar biodiversity crisis in the terrestrial realm, the low resolution of mid-Permian tetrapod biostratigraphy and a lack of robust geochronological constraints have until now hampered both the correlation and quantification of terrestrial extinctions. Here we present an extensive compilation of tetrapod-stratigraphic data analysed by the constrained optimization (CONOP) algorithm that reveals a significant extinction event among tetrapods within the lower Beaufort Group of the Karoo Basin, South Africa, in the latest Capitanian. Our fossil dataset reveals a 74–80% loss of generic richness between the upper Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone (AZ) and the mid- Pristerognathus AZ that is temporally constrained by a U–Pb zircon date (CA-TIMS method) of 260.259 ± 0.081 Ma from a tuff near the top of the Tapinocephalus AZ. This strengthens the biochronology of the Permian Beaufort Group and supports the existence of a mid-Permian mass extinction event on land near the end of the Guadalupian. Our results permit a temporal association between the extinction of dinocephalian therapsids and the LIP volcanism at Emeishan, as well as the marine end-Guadalupian extinctions.

Earliest Silurian faunal survival and recovery after the end Ordovician glaciation: evidence from the brachiopods

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Robin M. Cocks ◽  
Rong Jia-yu
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Recovery Rate ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Benthic Assemblages ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Ecological Recovery

ABSTRACTEarliest Silurian (basal Llandovery) brachiopod faunas are surveyed and listed from around the globe, and divided between Lower Rhuddanian and Upper Rhuddanian occurrences. 60 genera are known from the Lower Rhuddanian within 20 superfamilies and there are 87 genera in 25 superfamilies in the Upper Rhuddanian. The 29 areas surveyed span the globe, both latitudinally and longitudinally. Only six superfamilies are Lazarus taxa which are known both from the Ordovician and Middle Llandovery (Aeronian) and later rocks but have not been recorded from the Rhuddanian. These are surprising results, since many previous studies have inferred that the Rhuddanian was a time of very sparse faunas. The global warming that followed the latest Ordovician (Hirnantian) ice age did not proceed quickly, with an ice-cap probably present through at least the Llandovery. There is a marked absence of Lower Rhuddanian bioherms even at low palaeolatitudes; however, the ecological recovery rate was far faster than that following the end-Permian mass extinction event. The partitioning of the Rhuddanian shelf faunas into well-defined benthic assemblages progressed slowly over the interval.

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