Archosauromorph extinction selectivity during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction

Bethany J. Allen; Thomas L. Stubbs; Michael J. Benton; Mark N. Puttick

doi:10.1111/pala.12399

Mass extinctions alter extinction and origination dynamics with respect to body size

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2021.1681 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 288 (1960) ◽

Author(s):

Pedro M. Monarrez ◽

Noel A. Heim ◽

Jonathan L. Payne

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Evolutionary Biology ◽

Marine Animal ◽

Mass Extinctions ◽

Extinction Selectivity ◽

Extinction Events ◽

Mass Extinction Events ◽

Marine Biosphere

Whether mass extinctions and their associated recoveries represent an intensification of background extinction and origination dynamics versus a separate macroevolutionary regime remains a central debate in evolutionary biology. The previous focus has been on extinction, but origination dynamics may be equally or more important for long-term evolutionary outcomes. The evolution of animal body size is an ideal process to test for differences in macroevolutionary regimes, as body size is easily determined, comparable across distantly related taxa and scales with organismal traits. Here, we test for shifts in selectivity between background intervals and the ‘Big Five’ mass extinction events using capture–mark–recapture models. Our body-size data cover 10 203 fossil marine animal genera spanning 10 Linnaean classes with occurrences ranging from Early Ordovician to Late Pleistocene (485–1 Ma). Most classes exhibit differences in both origination and extinction selectivity between background intervals and mass extinctions, with the direction of selectivity varying among classes and overall exhibiting stronger selectivity during origination after mass extinction than extinction during the mass extinction. Thus, not only do mass extinction events shift the marine biosphere into a new macroevolutionary regime, the dynamics of recovery from mass extinction also appear to play an underappreciated role in shaping the biosphere in their aftermath.

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Modelling determinants of extinction across two Mesozoic hyperthermal events

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2018.0404 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 285 (1889) ◽

pp. 20180404 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Alexander M. Dunhill ◽

William J. Foster ◽

Sandro Azaele ◽

James Sciberras ◽

Richard J. Twitchett

Keyword(s):

Mass Extinction ◽

Marine Organisms ◽

Early Jurassic ◽

Late Triassic ◽

Global Database ◽

Extinction Rates ◽

Multivariate Modelling ◽

Hyperthermal Events ◽

Extinction Selectivity ◽

Extinction Events

The Late Triassic and Early Toarcian extinction events are both associated with greenhouse warming events triggered by massive volcanism. These Mesozoic hyperthermals were responsible for the mass extinction of marine organisms and resulted in significant ecological upheaval. It has, however, been suggested that these events merely involved intensification of background extinction rates rather than significant shifts in the macroevolutionary regime and extinction selectivity. Here, we apply a multivariate modelling approach to a vast global database of marine organisms to test whether extinction selectivity varied through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. We show that these hyperthermals do represent shifts in the macroevolutionary regime and record different extinction selectivity compared to background intervals of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The Late Triassic mass extinction represents a more profound change in selectivity than the Early Toarcian extinction but both events show a common pattern of selecting against pelagic predators and benthic photosymbiotic and suspension-feeding organisms, suggesting that these groups of organisms may be particularly vulnerable during episodes of global warming. In particular, the Late Triassic extinction represents a macroevolutionary regime change that is characterized by (i) the change in extinction selectivity between Triassic background intervals and the extinction event itself; and (ii) the differences in extinction selectivity between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic as a whole.

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Evidence for extinction selectivity throughout the marine invertebrate fossil record

Paleobiology ◽

10.1666/0094-8373-35.4.553 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 553-564 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

G. Alex Janevski ◽

Tomasz K. Baumiller

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Marine Invertebrate ◽

Species Level ◽

Geologic History ◽

Extinction Selectivity ◽

Extinction Events ◽

Open Question ◽

Mass Extinction Events

The fossil record has been used to show that in some geologic intervals certain traits of taxa may increase their survivability, and therefore that the risk of extinction is not randomly distributed among taxa. It has also been suggested that traits that buffer against extinction in background times do not confer the same resistance during mass extinction events. An open question is whether at any time in geologic history extinction probabilities were randomly distributed among taxa. Here we use a method for detecting random extinction to demonstrate that during both background and mass extinction times, extinction of marine invertebrate genera has been nonrandom with respect to species richness categories of genera. A possible cause for this nonrandom extinction is selective clustering of extinctions in genera consisting of species which possess extinction-biasing traits. Other potential causes considered here include geographic selectivity, increased extinction susceptibility for species in species-rich genera, or biases related to taxonomic practice and/or sampling heterogeneity. An important theoretical result is that extinction selectivity at the species level cannot be smoothly extrapolated upward to genera; the appearance of random genus extinction with respect to species richness of genera results when extinction has been highly selective at the species level.

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

10.1101/2020.10.09.332999 ◽

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.

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Modelling determinants of extinction across two Mesozoic hyperthermal events

10.31233/osf.io/fywvm ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Dunhill ◽

William J. Foster ◽

Sandro Azaele ◽

James Sciberras ◽

Richard J. Twitchett

Keyword(s):

Mass Extinction ◽

Marine Organisms ◽

Early Jurassic ◽

Late Triassic ◽

Global Database ◽

Extinction Rates ◽

Multivariate Modelling ◽

Hyperthermal Events ◽

Extinction Selectivity ◽

Extinction Events

The Late Triassic and early Toarcian extinction events are both associated with greenhouse warming events triggered by massive volcanism. These Mesozoic hyperthermals were responsible for the mass extinction of marine organisms and resulted in significant ecological upheaval. It has, however, been suggested that these events merely involved intensification of background extinction rates rather than significant shifts in the macroevolutionary regime and extinction selectivity. Here, we apply a multivariate modelling approach to a vast global database of marine organisms to test whether extinction selectivity varied through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. We show that these hyperthermals do represent shifts in the macroevolutionary regime and record different extinction selectivity compared to background intervals of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The Late Triassic mass extinction represents a more profound change in selectivity than the early Toarcian extinction but both events show a common pattern of selecting against pelagic predators and benthic photosymbiotic and suspension-feeding organisms, suggesting that these groups of organisms may be particularly vulnerable during episodes of global warming. In particular, the Late Triassic extinction represents a macroevolutionary regime change that is characterised by (i) the change in extinction selectivity between Triassic background intervals and the extinction event itself; and (ii) the differences in extinction selectivity between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic as a whole.

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Coal-fired trigger of mass extinction

Nature ◽

10.1038/news.2011.38 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Gayathri Vaidyanathan

Keyword(s):

Mass Extinction

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The survivors of Earth’s worst mass extinction

Nature Middle East ◽

10.1038/nmiddleeast.2018.165 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lara Reid

Keyword(s):

Mass Extinction

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An Expert Ranked List of Pro-nature Conservation Behaviours for Public Use

10.31234/osf.io/bzmsv ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lea Barbett ◽

Edward Stupple ◽

Michael Sweet ◽

Miles Richardson

Keyword(s):

Nature Conservation ◽

General Population ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Ecological Impact ◽

Human Action ◽

Short Paper ◽

The Public ◽

The Uk ◽

Ranked List

The planet is facing an anthropogenic mass extinction of wildlife, which will have a grave impact on the environment and humans. Widespread human action is needed to minimize the negative impact of humans on biodiversity and support the restoration of wildlife. In order to find effective ways to promote pro-nature conservation behaviours to the general population, there is a need to provide a list of behaviours which will have worthwhile ecological impact and are worth encouraging. In a novel collaboration between psychologists and ecologists, 70 experts from practical and academic conservation backgrounds were asked to review and rate 48 conservation related behaviours. According to their judgement, this short paper presents a ranked list of pro-nature conservation behaviours for the public in the UK and similar landscapes. This includes behaviours people can engage in in their homes, their gardens, on their land, and in their roles as citizens.

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