Climate change and the latitudinal selectivity of ancient marine extinctions

Paleobiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Reddin ◽  
Ádám T. Kocsis ◽  
Wolfgang Kiessling
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Tropical Species ◽  
Shelf Area ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Continental Shelf Area ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

AbstractGeologically rapid climate change is anticipated to increase extinction risk nonuniformly across the Earth's surface. Tropical species may be more vulnerable than temperate species to current climate warming because of high tropical climate velocities and reduced seawater oxygen levels. To test whether rapid warming indeed preferentially increased the extinction risk of tropical fossil taxa, we combine a robust statistical assessment of latitudinal extinction selectivity (LES) with the dominant views on climate change occurring at ancient extinction crises. Using a global data set of marine fossil occurrences, we assess extinction rates for tropical and temperate genera, applying log ratios to assess effect size and Akaike weights for model support. Among the classical “big five” mass extinction episodes, the end-Permian mass extinction exhibits temperate preference of extinctions, whereas the Late Devonian and end-Triassic selectively hit tropical genera. Simple links between the inferred direction of climate change and LES are idiosyncratic, both during crisis and background intervals. More complex models, including sampling patterns and changes in the latitudinal distribution of continental shelf area, show tropical LES to be generally associated with raised tropical heat and temperate LES with global cold temperatures. With implications for the future, our paper demonstrates the consistency of high tropical temperatures, habitat loss, and the capacity of both to interact in generating geographic patterns in extinctions.

Early and Middle Triassic trends in diversity, evenness, and size of foraminifers on a carbonate platform in south China: implications for tempo and mode of biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction

Paleobiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan L. Payne ◽  
Mindi Summers ◽  
Brianna L. Rego ◽  
Demir Altiner ◽  
Jiayong Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Recovery Pattern ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Delayed biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction has long been interpreted to result from environmental inhibition. Recently, evidence of more rapid recovery has begun to emerge, suggesting the role of environmental inhibition was previously overestimated. However, there have been few high-resolution taxonomic and ecological studies spanning the full Early and Middle Triassic recovery interval, leaving the precise pattern of recovery and underlying mechanisms poorly constrained. In this study, we document Early and Middle Triassic trends in taxonomic diversity, assemblage evenness, and size distribution of benthic foraminifers on an exceptionally exposed carbonate platform in south China. We observe gradual increases in all metrics through Early Triassic and earliest Middle Triassic time, with stable values reached early in the Anisian. There is little support in our data set for a substantial Early Triassic lag interval during the recovery of foraminifers or for a stepwise recovery pattern. The recovery pattern of foraminifers on the GBG corresponds well with available global data for this taxon and appears to parallel that of many benthic invertebrate clades. Early Triassic diversity increase in foraminifers was more gradual than in ammonoids and conodonts. However, foraminifers continued to increase in diversity, size, and evenness into Middle Triassic time, whereas diversity of ammonoids and conodonts declined. These contrasts suggest decoupling of recovery between benthic and pelagic environments; it is unclear whether these discrepancies reflect inherent contrasts in their evolutionary dynamics or the differential impact of Early Triassic ocean anoxia or associated environmental parameters on benthic ecosystems.

Carboniferous-Triassic gastropod diversity patterns and the Permo-Triassic mass extinction

Paleobiology ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas H. Erwin
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Detrended Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Lower Permian ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Environmental Distribution ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Paleozoic and post-Paleozoic marine faunas are strikingly different in composition. Paleozoic marine gastropods may be divided into archaic and modern groups based on taxonomic composition, ecological role, and morphology. Paleozoic assemblages were dominated by pleurotomariids (Eotomariidae and Phymatopleuridae), the Pseudozygopleuridae, and, to a lesser extent, the Euomphalidae, while Triassic assemblages were dominated by the Trochiina, Amberleyacea, and new groups of Loxonematoidea and Pleurotomariina. Several new groups of caenogastropods appeared as well. Yet the importance of the end-Permian mass extinction in generating these changes has been questioned. As part of a study of the diversity history of upper Paleozoic and Triassic gastropods, to test the extent to which taxonomic and morphologic trends established in the late Paleozoic are continued after the extinction, and to determine the patterns of selectivity operating during the extinction, I assembled generic and morphologic diversity data for 396 genera in 75 families from the Famennian through the Norian stages. Within this interval, gastropod genera underwent an adaptive radiation during the Visean and Namurian, largely of pleurotomariids, a subsequent period of dynamic stability through the Leonardian, a broad-based decline during the end-Permian mass extinction, and a two-phase post-extinction rebound during the Triassic. The patterns of generic diversity within superfamily-level clades were analyzed using Q-mode factor analysis and detrended correspondence analysis.The results demonstrate that taxonomic affinity, previous clade history, generic age, and gross morphology did not determine survival probability of genera during the end-Permian extinction, with the exception of the bellerophontids, nor did increasing diversity within clades or expansion of particular morphologies prior to the extinction facilitate survival during the extinction or success after it. The pleurotomariids diversified during the Lower Permian, but were heavily hit by the extinction. Similarly, trochiform and turriculate morphologies, among those which Vermeij (1987) has identified as having increased predation resistance, were expanding in the late Paleozoic, but suffered similar extinction rates to other nondiversifying clades. Survival was a consequence of broad geographic and environmental distribution, as was the case during background periods.

Quantifying the process and abruptness of the end-Permian mass extinction

Paleobiology ◽  
10.1666/13022 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Wang ◽  
Peter M. Sadler ◽  
Shu-zhong Shen ◽  
Douglas H. Erwin ◽  
Yi-chun Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
Catastrophic Event ◽  
Optimal Sequence ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Meishan Section ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Biodiversity Pattern ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
The Impact

Studies of the end-Permian mass extinction have suggested a variety of patterns from a single catastrophic event to multiple phases. But most of these analyses have been based on fossil distributions from single localities. Although single sections may simplify the interpretation of species diversity, they are susceptible to bias from stratigraphic incompleteness and facies control of preservation. Here we use a data set of 1450 species from 18 fossiliferous sections in different paleoenvironmental settings across South China and the northern peri-Gondwanan region, and integrate it with high-precision geochronologic data to evaluate the rapidity of the largest Phanerozoic mass extinction. To reduce the Signor-Lipps effect, we applied constrained optimization (CONOP) to search for an optimal sequence of first and last occurrence datums for all species and generate a composite biodiversity pattern based on multiple sections. This analysis indicates that an abrupt extinction of 62% of species took place within 200 Kyr. The onset of the sudden extinction is around 252.3 Ma, just below Bed 25 at the Meishan section. Taxon turnover and diversification rates suggest a deterioration of the living conditions nearly 1.2 Myr before the sudden extinction. The magnitude of the extinction was such that there was no immediate biotic recovery. Prior suggestions of highly variable, multi-phased extinction patterns reflect the impact of the Signor-Lipps effect and facies-dependent occurrences, and are not supported following appropriate statistical treatment of this larger data set.

End-Permian mass extinction of foraminifers in the Nanpanjiang basin, South China

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 718-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haijun Song ◽  
Jinnan Tong ◽  
Z. Q. Chen ◽  
Hao Yang ◽  
Yongbiao Wang
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
South China ◽  
Contact Surface ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Extinction ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
A New Species

Newly obtained foraminifer faunas from the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) transition at the Dajiang and Bianyang sections in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China, comprise 61 species in 40 genera. They belong to thePalaeofusulina sinensisZone, the youngest Permian foraminifer zone in South China. Quantitative analysis reveals that the last occurrences of more than a half of species (28/54) fall into a 60-cm-interval at the uppermost Changhsingian skeletal packstone unit and thus calibrate the end-Permian extinction to the skeletal packstonecalcimicrobial framestone boundary. About 93% (54/58) of species of the latest Permian assemblage became extinct in the P-Tr crisis. Four major foraminiferal groups, the Miliolida, Fusulinida, Lagenida, and Textulariina, have extinction rates up to 100%, 96%, 92%, and 50%, respectively, and thus experienced selective extinctions. BothHemigordius longusand ?Globivalvulina bulloidestemporarily survived the end-Permian extinction event and extended into the earliest Triassic but became extinct soon after. The post-extinction foraminifer assemblage is characterized by the presence of both disaster taxa and Lazarus taxa. Foraminifer distribution near the P-Tr boundary also reveals that the irregular contact surface at the uppermost Permian may be created by a massive submarine dissolution event, which may be coeval with the end-Permian mass extinction. A new species,Rectostipulina hexamerata,is described here.

scholarly journals Climate Change and Mass Extinction Risk in an Endemic-Rich Late Devonian Fauna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaleigh Q. Pier ◽  
Sarah K. Brisson ◽  
J. Andrew Beard ◽  
Michael T Hren ◽  
Andrew M Bush
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Brachiopod Fauna ◽  
The Many ◽  
Geographically Isolated

Abstract The fossil record can illuminate factors that contribute to extinction risk during times of global environmental disturbance; for example, inferred thermal tolerance is an important predictor of extinction during several mass extinctions that corresponded with climate change1,2. Additionally, members of geographically isolated biotas may face higher risk because they have less opportunity to migrate to suitable climate refugia during environmental disturbances. Here, we investigate how these two types of risk intersect in the well-preserved brachiopod fauna of the Appalachian Foreland Basin during the two pulses of the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction (Late Devonian, ~372 Ma3,4). The selectivity of extinction supports climate change (cooling) as the primary kill mechanism in this fauna, with warm-adapted taxa going extinct preferentially. Overall, the extinction was mild relative to other regions, despite the many endemic species. However, taxa that were vulnerable to climate change went extinct more rapidly, during the first extinction pulse, such that the second pulse was insignificant. These results suggest that vulnerable taxa in geographically isolated biotas face heightened extinction risk at the initiation of environmental stress, but that other regions may “catch up” if environmental stress repeats or intensifies.

scholarly journals The Late Capitanian Mass Extinction of Terrestrial Vertebrates in the Karoo Basin of South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O. Day ◽  
Bruce S. Rubidge
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Continuous Sampling ◽  
Faunal Turnover ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Events

The Beaufort Group of the main Karoo Basin of South Africa records two major extinction events of terrestrial vertebrates in the late Palaeozoic. The oldest of these has been dated to the late Capitanian and is characterized by the extinction of dinocephalian therapsids and bradysaurian pareiasaurs near the top of Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Faunal turnover associated with the extinction of dinocephalians is evident in vertebrate faunas from elsewhere in Pangaea but it can be best studied in the Karoo Basin, where exposures of the upper Abrahamskraal and lower Teekloof formations allow continuous sampling across the whole extinction interval. Here we present field data for several sections spanning the Capitanian extinction interval in the southwestern Karoo and discuss recent work to establish its timing, severity, and causes. A large collections database informed by fieldwork demonstrates an increase in extinction rates associated with ecological instability that approach that of the end-Permian mass extinction, and shows significant turnover followed by a period of low diversity. Extinctions and recovery appear phased and show similarities to diversity patterns reported for the end-Permian mass extinction higher in the Beaufort sequence. In the Karoo, the late Capitanian mass extinction coincides with volcanism in the Emeishan Large Igneous Province and may have been partly driven by short-term aridification, but clear causal mechanisms and robust links to global environmental phenomena remain elusive.

The double mass extinction revisited: reassessing the severity, selectivity, and causes of the end-Guadalupian biotic crisis (Late Permian)

Paleobiology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Clapham ◽  
Shuzhong Shen ◽  
David J. Bottjer
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Sharp Decrease ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Marine Habitat ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Double Mass ◽  
Genus Richness ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

The end-Guadalupian extinction, at the end of the Middle Permian, is thought to have been one of the largest biotic crises in the Phanerozoic. Previous estimates suggest that the crisis eliminated 58% of marine invertebrate genera during the Capitanian stage and that its selectivity helped the Modern evolutionary fauna become more diverse than the Paleozoic fauna before the end-Permian mass extinction. However, a new sampling-standardized analysis of Permian diversity trends, based on 53731 marine invertebrate fossil occurrences from 9790 collections, indicates that the end-Guadalupian “extinction” was actually a prolonged but gradual decrease in diversity from the Wordian to the end of the Permian. There was no peak in extinction rates; reduced genus richness exhibited by all studied invertebrate groups and ecological guilds, and in different latitudinal belts, was instead driven by a sharp decrease in origination rates during the Capitanian and Wuchiapingian. The global diversity decrease was exacerbated by changes in beta diversity, most notably a reduction in provinciality due to the loss of marine habitat area and a pronounced decrease in geographic disparity over small distances. Disparity over moderate to large distances was unchanged, suggesting that small-scale beta diversity changes may have resulted from compression of bathymetric ranges and homogenization of onshore-offshore faunal gradients stemming from the spread of deep-water anoxia around the Guadalupian/Lopingian boundary. Although tropical invertebrate genera were no more likely than extratropical ones to become extinct, the marked reduction in origination rates during the Capitanian and Wuchiapingian is consistent with the effects of global cooling (the Kamura Event), but may also be consistent with other environmental stresses such as anoxia. However, a gradual reduction in diversity, rather than a sharp end-Guadalupian extinction, precludes the need to invoke drastic extinction mechanisms and indicates that taxonomic loss at the end of the Paleozoic was concentrated in the traditional end-Permian (end-Changhsingian) extinction, which eliminated 78% of all marine invertebrate genera.

scholarly journals Accelerated mass extinction in an isolated biota during Late Devonian climate changes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaleigh Q. Pier ◽  
Sarah K. Brisson ◽  
J. Andrew Beard ◽  
Michael T. Hren ◽  
Andrew M. Bush
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Brachiopod Fauna ◽  
The Many ◽  
Geographically Isolated

AbstractThe fossil record can illuminate factors that contribute to extinction risk during times of global environmental disturbance; for example, inferred thermal tolerance was an important predictor of extinction during several mass extinctions that corresponded with climate change. Additionally, members of geographically isolated biotas may face higher risk because they have less opportunity to migrate to suitable climate refugia during environmental disturbances. Here, we investigate how different types of risk intersect in the well-preserved brachiopod fauna of the Appalachian Foreland Basin during the two pulses of the Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction (Late Devonian, ~ 372 Ma). The selectivity of extinction is consistent with climate change (cooling) as a primary kill mechanism in this fauna. Overall, the extinction was mild relative to other regions, despite the many endemic species. However, vulnerable taxa went extinct more rapidly, during the first extinction pulse, such that the second pulse was insignificant. These results suggest that vulnerable taxa in geographically isolated biotas face heightened extinction risk at the initiation of environmental stress, but that taxa in other regions may eventually see elevated extinction risk if environmental stress repeats or intensifies.

scholarly journals Machine learning (decision tree analysis) identifies ecological selectivity patterns across the end-Permian mass extinction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Foster ◽  
Georgy Ayzel ◽  
Terry T. Isson ◽  
Maria Mutti ◽  
Martin Aberhan
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Decision Tree ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Stationary Mode ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Tree Algorithms ◽  
Extinction Selectivity ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

AbstractDecision tree algorithms are rarely utilized in paleontological research, and here we show that machine learning algorithms can be used to identify determinants of extinction as well as predict extinction risk. This application of decision tree algorithms is important because the ecological selectivity of mass extinctions can reveal critical information on organismic traits as key determinants of extinction and hence the causes of extinction. To understand which factors led to the mass extinction of life during an extreme global warming event, we quantified the ecological selectivity of marine extinctions in the well-studied South China region during the end-Permian mass extinction using the categorized gradient boosting algorithm. We find that extinction selectivity varies between different groups of organisms and that a synergy of multiple environmental stressors best explains the overall end-Permian extinction selectivity pattern. Extinction risk was greater for genera that were limited to deep-water habitats, had a stationary mode of life, possessed a siliceous skeleton or, less critically, had calcitic skeletons. These selective losses directly link the extinction to the environmental effects of rapid injections of carbon dioxide into the ocean-atmosphere system, specifically the combined effects of expanded oxygen minimum zones, rapid warming, and ocean acidification.

Diversity and distribution of Triassic bryozoans in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Powers ◽  
Joseph F. Pachut
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Carbonate Rock ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Diversity Pattern ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Early Late

Seventy-three species of stenolaemate bryozoans are documented worldwide from the Triassic. Stage-level diversity and paleogeographical analyses reveal that the recovery of bryozoans following the end-Permian mass extinction was delayed until the Middle Triassic. Early Triassic bryozoans faunas, dominated by members of the Order Trepostomida, were depauperate and geographically restricted. Bryozoan diversity increased during the Middle Triassic and diversity peaked in the Carnian (early Late Triassic). High extinction rates throughout the Late Triassic led to the extinction of all stenolaemate orders except the Cyclostomida by the end of the Triassic. Comparisons between global carbonate rock volume, outcrop surface area, and bryozoan diversity indicate that the documented diversity pattern for bryozoans may have been related, in part, to the availability of carbonate environments during the Triassic.

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