A provincial model of Phanerozoic marine diversity

Valentine, James W.; Foin, Theodore C.; Peart, David R.

doi:10.1017/s0094837300005686

Cited by 96 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Much has been written about the "bottlenecking" effect of mass extinction. With kill rates for species estimated to have been as high as 77% and 96% for the largest extinctions (11,25), the biosphere is forced through narrow bottlenecks and the recovery from these events is usually accompanied by fundamental changes in biotic composition (26). Without these perturbations, the general course of macroevolution could have been very different.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past.

Raup¹,

Sepkoski²

1984

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

851

449

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The temporal distribution of the major extinctions over the past 250 million years has been investigated statistically using various forms of time series analysis. The analyzed record is based on variation in extinction intensity for fossil families of marine vertebrates, invertebrates, and protozoans and contains 12 extinction events. The 12 events show a statistically significant periodicity (P < 0.01) with a mean interval between events of 26 million years. Two of the events coincide with extinctions that have been previously linked to meteorite impacts (terminal Cretaceous and Late Eocene). Although the causes of the periodicity are unknown, it is possible that they are related to extraterrestrial forces (solar, solar system, or galactic).Virtually all species of animals and plants that have ever lived are now extinct, and the known fossil record documents some 200,000 such extinctions. It has been generally assumed that extinction is a continuous process in the sense that species are always at risk and that mass extinctions simply reflect relatively short-term increases in that risk. Following this view, the extinction process is often described mathematically as a time homogeneous process using standard birth-death models (1-3). There is increasing evidence, however, that many extinctions are actually short-lived events of special stress, separated by periods of much lower, or even negligible, risk. Fischer and Arthur (4) departed from convention by arguing that the major extinction events of the past 250 million years (ma) occurred periodically at nearly constant intervals of 32 ma (see also ref. 5). Their study used a limited data base, and no statistical testing was done. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to test the proposition of periodicity in the record of marine extinctions over the past 250 ma (Late Permian to Recent) by using as rigorous a methodology as present data permit. DATA BASEThe data for this study come from Sepkoski's compilation (6) of the temporal ranges of -3,500 families of marine animals (vertebrate, invertebrate, and protozoan), but the subset of data and method of expressing extinction intensity differ from our previous analyses of these data (7,8). For the present study, a culled subset of the total sample was used: all families with low-resolution ranges, not known to the level of the stratigraphic stage, were eliminated, as were families noted by Sepkoski (6) as having questionable taxonomic or stratigraphic designations. In addition, families still living today were ignored in order to avoid the damping effect of the "Pull of the Recent" (9). This culling process reduced the sample substantially (567 for the Late Permian to Recent) but in so doing removed much of the noise that characterizes data sets of this kind.The Late Permian to Recent interval analyzed in this study contains several well-documented mass extinctions, has a comparatively accurate time scale, and is divided into relatively short stratigraphic stages. The interval comprises 39 international s...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past.

Raup¹,

Sepkoski²

1984

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

851

449

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“…Among the first to articulate some of the fundamental biological expectations were Valentine and Moores (1), who hypothesized that the aggregation of continental crustal blocks into supercontinents may reduce biodiversity and that the breakup and separation of continental blocks may increase biodiversity. Many environmental factors have been cited as potential mechanisms relating biodiversity to global tectonics, including changing climate, sea level, nutrient flux, ocean-atmospheric circulation, total habitable area, and intercontinental connectivity (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Hypothesized biotic drivers of biodiversity may also be tectonically influenced.…”

Section: Valentine and Moores [Valentine Jw Moores Em (1970)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate tectonic regulation of global marine animal diversity

Zaffos

Finnegan

Peters

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

166

157

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Valentine and Moores [Valentine JW, Moores EM (1970) Nature 228:657-659] hypothesized that plate tectonics regulates global biodiversity by changing the geographic arrangement of continental crust, but the data required to fully test the hypothesis were not available. Here, we use a global database of marine animal fossil occurrences and a paleogeographic reconstruction model to test the hypothesis that temporal patterns of continental fragmentation have impacted global Phanerozoic biodiversity. We find a positive correlation between global marine invertebrate genus richness and an independently derived quantitative index describing the fragmentation of continental crust during supercontinental coalescence-breakup cycles. The observed positive correlation between global biodiversity and continental fragmentation is not readily attributable to commonly cited vagaries of the fossil record, including changing quantities of marine rock or time-variable sampling effort. Because many different environmental and biotic factors may covary with changes in the geographic arrangement of continental crust, it is difficult to identify a specific causal mechanism. However, cross-correlation indicates that the state of continental fragmentation at a given time is positively correlated with the state of global biodiversity for tens of millions of years afterward. There is also evidence to suggest that continental fragmentation promotes increasing marine richness, but that coalescence alone has only a small negative or stabilizing effect. Together, these results suggest that continental fragmentation, particularly during the Mesozoic breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea, has exerted a first-order control on the long-term trajectory of Phanerozoic marine animal diversity.paleogeography | paleobiology | biodiversity | biogeography

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“…Valentine (1973) and Schopf (1979) established a strong link between changes in endemism and the dramatic rise in taxa produced by the mid-Mesozoic-Cenozoic radiation. Valentine et al (1978) attributed high marine species diversity in the Cenozoic to the marked rise in provinciality and simulated Phanerozoic marine diversity in terms of changing provincial patterns. They suggested as much as a five-fold increase in provinciality since the Late Palaeozoic, although this figure has been disputed (Bambach 1990).…”

Section: Biogeography and Biodiversity Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeobiogeography and the Ordovician and Mesozoic-Cenozoic biotic radiations

Owen

Crame

2002

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Curves of taxonomic diversity through geological time consistently show major evolutionary radiations during the Ordovician Period and from the mid-Mesozoic to the present day. Both intervals were characterized by marked biotic provincialism, reflecting episodes of major continental break-up and global tectonism, and their later histories featured steep global climatic gradients. The Ordovician radiation can be recognized at a wide spectrum of taxonomic levels from species to class, and the biogeographical patterns associated with the radiation of individual clades reflect a complex combination of plate distribution, tectonic activity, sedimentary environment, sea-level rise and, ultimately, glaciation. The true scale of the mid-Mesozoic-Cenozoic biotic radiation is currently a topic of intense debate but there is no doubt that it affected plants and animals in both the marine and terrestrial realms. The role of land bridges and ocean gateways in controlling the formation of biodiversity patterns has been a persistent theme in Mesozoic-Cenozoic biogeography, and a complex set of Neogene tectonic events probably aided the development of both latitudinal and longitudinal provinces during the Cenozoic. The present volume highlights some of the successes across a spectrum of approaches to unravelling the Ordovician and Mesozoic-Cenozoic radiations within the context of palaeobiogeography.'... geologic history is the pacemaker of biologic diversity' (Schopf 1979, p.454) Post-Cambrian curves of taxonomic diversity through geological time consistently show a major evolutionary radiation during the Ordovician Period, and a second, larger one from the mid-Mesozoic to the present day. Between these steep upward slopes the Silurian-Jurassic interval usually appears as a distinct plateau punctuated by mass extinctions and their recovery

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A provincial model of Phanerozoic marine diversity

Cited by 96 publications

References 24 publications

Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past.

Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past.

Plate tectonic regulation of global marine animal diversity

Palaeobiogeography and the Ordovician and Mesozoic-Cenozoic biotic radiations

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