Did Cooling Oceans Trigger Ordovician Biodiversification? Evidence from Conodont Thermometry

Trotter, Julie; Williams, Ian S.; Barnes, Christopher R.; Lécuyer, Christophe; Nicoll, Robert S.

doi:10.1126/science.1155814

Cited by 564 publications

(483 citation statements)

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“…This pattern is consistent with results from classical oxygen isotope paleothermometry (7,53,54) and clumped isotope paleothermometry (5), which indicate that despite the existence of at least moderate-sized Gondwanan ice sheets from mid-late Katian time. Shallow tropical seas did not cool substantially until latest Katian-Hirnantian time.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

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Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Finnegan

Heim

Peters

et al. 2012

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

148

119

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Selectivity patterns provide insights into the causes of ancient extinction events. The Late Ordovician mass extinction was related to Gondwanan glaciation; however, it is still unclear whether elevated extinction rates were attributable to record failure, habitat loss, or climatic cooling. We examined Middle Ordovician-Early Silurian North American fossil occurrences within a spatiotemporally explicit stratigraphic framework that allowed us to quantify rock record effects on a per-taxon basis and assay the interplay of macrostratigraphic and macroecological variables in determining extinction risk. Genera that had large proportions of their observed geographic ranges affected by stratigraphic truncation or environmental shifts at the end of the Katian stage were particularly hard hit. The duration of the subsequent sampling gaps had little effect on extinction risk, suggesting that this extinction pulse cannot be entirely attributed to rock record failure; rather, it was caused, in part, by habitat loss. Extinction risk at this time was also strongly influenced by the maximum paleolatitude at which a genus had previously been sampled, a macroecological trait linked to thermal tolerance. A model trained on the relationship between 16 explanatory variables and extinction patterns during the early Katian interval substantially underestimates the extinction of exclusively tropical taxa during the late Katian interval. These results indicate that glacioeustatic sea-level fall and tropical ocean cooling played important roles in the first pulse of the Late Ordovician mass extinction in Laurentia.climate change | stratigraphy | sea level | Hirnantian | marine invertebrates T he Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME) was the first of the "Big Five" Phanerozoic mass extinctions, and it eliminated an estimated 61% of marine genera globally (1). The LOME stands out among major mass extinctions in being unambiguously linked to climate change. The primary pulse of extinction near the Katian/Hirnantian stage boundary closely coincided with the rapid growth of south polar ice sheets on Gondwana (1-4). Expansion of continental ice sheets was accompanied by substantial cooling of the tropical oceans (5, 6), a major perturbation of the global carbon cycle (7-9) and a large drop in eustatic sea level (2, 5, 10, 11), which drained the vast cratonic seaways that characterized the Late Ordovician world (12). Extinction rates were particularly high around the tropical paleocontinent of Laurentia (13) where retreat of cratonic seas drove a sharp reduction in the area of preserved sedimentary rock between Katian and Hirnantian time (Fig. 1).The complex interrelated events surrounding the LOME exemplify a classic problem in paleobiology. Peaks in apparent extinction rate (14) are commonly associated with major gaps in the stratigraphic record or rapid changes in depositional environments. It is not always clear, however, whether these peaks simply reflect the spurious accumulation of last appearances at hiatal surfaces and lithofacies j...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Weaker but significant inverse associations between maximum latitude and extinction risk are also apparent for the late Middle Ordovician Darriwilian stage (Figs. 2C and 3C), during which there is evidence of an earlier tropical cooling step (6,(54)(55)(56), and the latest Ordovician Hirnantian stage.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Finnegan

Heim

Peters

et al. 2012

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

148

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The mount was vacuum-coated with a 500 nm layer of high-purity gold. The analytical procedure and operating conditions are similar to that of Ickert et al (2008) and Trotter et al (2008). During a typical analysis, a 3.0 nA beam of Cs + is focused into a spot of ∼20 μm diameter on the target surface, generating an approximately 10 9 cps 16 O − secondary ion count.…”

Section: Zircon Oxygen Isotopementioning

confidence: 99%

The formation of Qulong adakites and their relationship with porphyry copper deposit: Geochemical constraints

Liu

Ling

et al. 2015

Lithos

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“…The LOME is associated with a shift from the greenhouse climate that had dominated most of the Cambrian to MidOrdovician metazoan macroevolutionary radiations to icehouse conditions through an interval of increasingly cool and unstable conditions during the Late Ordovician (23)(24)(25). Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) glaciation lowered sea levels by some 70-100 m (26,27), reduced tropical sea surface temperatures by ∼6°C (22,26), and increased oxygenation of the deep oceans (22,28,29).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Sheets

Mitchell

Melchin

et al. 2016

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

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Mass extinctions disrupt ecological communities. Although climate changes produce stress in ecological communities, few paleobiological studies have systematically addressed the impact of global climate changes on the fine details of community structure with a view to understanding how changes in community structure presage, or even cause, biodiversity decline during mass extinctions. Based on a novel Bayesian approach to biotope assessment, we present a study of changes in species abundance distribution patterns of macroplanktonic graptolite faunas (∼447-444 Ma) leading into the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Communities at two contrasting sites exhibit significant decreases in complexity and evenness as a consequence of the preferential decline in abundance of dysaerobic zone specialist species. The observed changes in community complexity and evenness commenced well before the dramatic population depletions that mark the tipping point of the extinction event. Initially, community changes tracked changes in the oceanic water masses, but these relations broke down during the onset of mass extinction. Environmental isotope and biomarker data suggest that sea surface temperature and nutrient cycling in the paleotropical oceans changed sharply during the latest Katian time, with consequent changes in the extent of the oxygen minimum zone and phytoplankton community composition. Although many impacted species persisted in ephemeral populations, increased extinction risk selectively depleted the diversity of paleotropical graptolite species during the latest Katian and early Hirnantian. The effects of long-term climate change on habitats can thus degrade populations in ways that cascade through communities, with effects that culminate in mass extinction.abundance | climate change | extinction | macroevolution | selection M ass extinctions affect communities over a range of hierar-

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Did Cooling Oceans Trigger Ordovician Biodiversification? Evidence from Conodont Thermometry

Cited by 564 publications

References 25 publications

Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

The formation of Qulong adakites and their relationship with porphyry copper deposit: Geochemical constraints

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction

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