Breathless through Time: Oxygen and Animals across Earth’s History

Sperling, Erik A.; Boag, Thomas H.; Duncan, Murray I.; Endriga, Cecilia R.; Marquez, J. Andres; Mills, Daniel B.; Monarrez, Pedro M.; Sclafani, Judith A.; Stockey, Richard G.; Payne, Jonathan L.

doi:10.1086/721754

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 174 publications

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“…Jablonski et al, 1983). Alternatively, higher bioturbation levels in early Paleozoic nearshore, wave‐reworked settings—which were likely characterized by greater exchange with atmospheric oxygen—may have been due to at least transient mitigation of oxygen stress (and of associated limitations on metabolically demanding behaviors such as sediment mixing) in oceans otherwise characterized by low background dissolved oxygen levels (e.g., Dahl et al, 2019; Sperling et al, 2022; Tarhan, 2018a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and temporal patterns in bioturbation in the Cambrian–Ordovician of Western Newfoundland

et al. 2023

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The early Paleozoic emergence of bioturbating (sediment‐dwelling and ‐mixing) animals has long been assumed to have led to substantial changes in marine biogeochemistry, seafloor ecology, and the preservation potential of both sedimentary and fossil archives. However, the timing of the rise of bioturbation and environmental patterns in its expansion have long been subjects of debate—resolution of which has been hampered, in part, by a paucity of high‐resolution bioturbation data or of systematic investigations of facies trends in lower Paleozoic bioturbation. To address these issues, we conducted an integrated sedimentological and ichnological characterization of the Cambrian–Ordovician Port au Port succession and Cow Head Group of western Newfoundland, encompassing over 350 meters of stratigraphy logged at the centimeter to decimeter scale. We find that, across a wide range of marine facies, bioturbation does not on average exceed moderate intensities—corroborating observations from other lower Paleozoic successions indicating that the early Paleozoic development of bioturbation was a protracted process. Moreover, bioturbation intensities in the Port au Port succession and Cow Head Group are commonly characterized by considerable variability at even fine scales of stratigraphic resolution and changes in bioturbation intensity correlate strongly with variability in sedimentary facies. We observe that facies recording nearshore depositional environments and carbonate‐rich lithologies are each characterized by the highest intensities of both burrowing and sediment mixing. These data highlight the need for a high‐resolution and facies‐specific approach to reconstructing the evolutionary history of bioturbation and suggest that average levels of bioturbation, although relatively low throughout this interval, increased notably earlier in nearshore marine settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and temporal patterns in bioturbation in the Cambrian–Ordovician of Western Newfoundland

et al. 2023

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“…We note that also sponges that lack HIF diversified in the Cambrian and it would be valuable to explore how these animals handle abrupt metabolic switching (e.g., the upregulation of rate-limiting enzymes during glycolysis) without impaired cellular functions. For example, studies note that early animals diversified despite globally low or oscillating O2 3,52 . That redox fluctuations can mechanistically drive evolutionary transitions has been proposed also across scales: for early multicellularity 53 , for the the selection of aggressive cancer cell clones 54 , and for animal communities across the Paleozoic 4 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic daily oxygen variability and stress as drivers for animal diversification in the Cambrian

Hammarlund

Bukkuri

Norling

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The delay between the origin of animals in the Neoproterozoic and their Cambrian diversification remains perplexing. Animal diversification mirrors an expansion in marine shelf area, but the mechanisms linking this environmental change to early organismal ecology are unclear. In this study, we used a biogeochemical model to consider oxygen dynamics at the sunlit sediment–water interface over night-day (diel) cycles in the early Cambrian under a greenhouse climate. We found that temperatures dictated the diurnal benthic oxic-anoxic shifts that were physiologically stressful to early animals and this dynamic expanded over nutrient-rich shelf areas as continents were flooded in the Cambrian. We suggest that the combination of a greenhouse climate and continental flooding combined to amplify diurnal benthic redox variability, which promoted the adaptive radiation of animals tolerant to oxygen fluctuations and stress, the Metazoa.

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“…The strength of this correlate suggests that extinctions are physiologically selective based on thermal limits. However, it is important to note that the thermal breadth of a taxon is mediated by both temperature and oxygen availability, which increased over the Phanerozoic, as well as other biotic factors such as competition and nutrient availability ( 8 , 56 – 58 ). Based on our models, taxa with narrow realized thermal breadths of less than 15°C may be at greatest risk of extinction (Fig.…”

Section: Extinction Selectivity Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales

Malanoski,

Farnsworth,

Lunt

et al. 2024

Science

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Anthropogenic climate change is increasing rapidly and already impacting biodiversity. Despite its importance in future projections, understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which climate mediates extinction remains limited. We present an integrated approach examining the role of intrinsic traits versus extrinsic climate change in mediating extinction risk for marine invertebrates over the past 485 million years. We found that a combination of physiological traits and the magnitude of climate change is necessary to explain marine invertebrate extinction patterns. Our results suggest that taxa previously identified as extinction resistant may still succumb to extinction if the magnitude of climate change is great enough.

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Breathless through Time: Oxygen and Animals across Earth’s History

Cited by 18 publications

References 174 publications

Environmental and temporal patterns in bioturbation in the Cambrian–Ordovician of Western Newfoundland

Environmental and temporal patterns in bioturbation in the Cambrian–Ordovician of Western Newfoundland

Benthic daily oxygen variability and stress as drivers for animal diversification in the Cambrian

Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales

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