Estimating the Rock Volume Bias in Paleobiodiversity Studies

Crampton, James S.; Beu, Alan G.; Cooper, Roger A.; Jones, C. S.; Marshall, Bruce A.; Maxwell, Phillip A.

doi:10.1126/science.1085075

Cited by 156 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Indeed, the Late Ordovician mass extinction has been linked directly to a significant fall and rise in eustatic sea level associated with the waxing and waning of a large Gondwanan ice sheet (46), and this record of sea-level change is directly associated with fluctuations in the quantity of sedimentary rock available for study (14). Our results are consistent with a number of recent modeling (47,48) and empirical studies (9,10,13,14) that suggest the need for a reassessment of stratigraphic bias on perceived trends in diversity and taxonomic rates across all mass extinction horizons. Such studies are critical for understanding the full impact of environmental perturbations on biodiversity and the processes of postextinction recovery.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…However, it has long been known that variability of sampling through time may exert a strong control on perceptions of Phanerozoic diversity trends (7). Recent studies have begun to evaluate in greater detail sampling biases on diversity by using a variety of methods and databases (8)(9)(10). Some intervals of mass extinction have come under close scrutiny because they tend to have a close association with sea-level changes and drops in rock volume that bias the preserved record of diversity, extinction, and origination (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid recovery from the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Krug

Patzkowsky

2004

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

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Understanding the evolutionary role of mass extinctions requires detailed knowledge of postextinction recoveries. However, most models of recovery hinge on a direct reading of the fossil record, and several recent studies have suggested that the fossil record is especially incomplete for recovery intervals immediately after mass extinctions. Here, we analyze a database of genus occurrences for the paleocontinent of Laurentia to determine the effects of regional processes on recovery and the effects of variations in preservation and sampling intensity on perceived diversity trends and taxonomic rates during the Late Ordovician mass extinction and Early Silurian recovery. After accounting for variation in sampling intensity, we find that marine benthic diversity in Laurentia recovered to preextinction levels within 5 million years, which is nearly 15 million years sooner than suggested by global compilations. The rapid turnover in Laurentia suggests that processes such as immigration may have been particularly important in the recovery of regional ecosystems from environmental perturbations. However, additional regional studies and a global analysis of the Late Ordovician mass extinction that accounts for variations in sampling intensity are necessary to confirm this pattern. Because the record of Phanerozoic mass extinctions and postextinction recoveries may be compromised by variations in preservation and sampling intensity, all should be reevaluated with sampling-standardized analyses if the evolutionary role of mass extinctions is to be fully understood.diversity ͉ Silurian

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid recovery from the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Krug

Patzkowsky

2004

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

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“…Peters & Foote 2001, 2002Frö bisch 2008;Barrett et al 2009;Butler et al 2009;Benson et al 2010), may be less appropriate than map areas because of the arbitrariness of formation definitions, and the fact that they may reflect rock heterogeneity (Crampton et al 2003;Smith 2007). The studies cited found tight correlations between number of formations and biodiversity, and this was interpreted as evidence for 'geological megabiases'.…”

Section: Diversification Of Life On Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

The origins of modern biodiversity on land

Benton

2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

133

108

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Comparative studies of large phylogenies of living and extinct groups have shown that most biodiversity arises from a small number of highly species-rich clades. To understand biodiversity, it is important to examine the history of these clades on geological time scales. This is part of a distinct 'phylogenetic expansion' view of macroevolution, and contrasts with the alternative, nonphylogenetic 'equilibrium' approach to the history of biodiversity. The latter viewpoint focuses on density-dependent models in which all life is described by a single global-scale model, and a case is made here that this approach may be less successful at representing the shape of the evolution of life than the phylogenetic expansion approach. The terrestrial fossil record is patchy, but is adequate for coarse-scale studies of groups such as vertebrates that possess fossilizable hard parts. New methods in phylogenetic analysis, morphometrics and the study of exceptional biotas allow new approaches. Models for diversity regulation through time range from the entirely biotic to the entirely physical, with many intermediates. Tetrapod diversity has risen as a result of the expansion of ecospace, rather than niche subdivision or regional-scale endemicity resulting from continental break-up. Tetrapod communities on land have been remarkably stable and have changed only when there was a revolution in floras (such as the demise of the Carboniferous coal forests, or the Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms) or following particularly severe mass extinction events, such as that at the end of the Permian.

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“…Consequently paleontologists have developed new approaches designed to identify and correct for such biases (23)(24)(25)(26)(27). These techniques have been applied to correct for biases in our record of the end-Ordovician mass extinction (28).…”

Section: Metrics For the Loss Of Evolutionary Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction as the loss of evolutionary history

Erwin

2008

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

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Current plant and animal diversity preserves at most 1-2% of the species that have existed over the past 600 million years. But understanding the evolutionary impact of these extinctions requires a variety of metrics. The traditional measurement is loss of taxa (species or a higher category) but in the absence of phylogenetic information it is difficult to distinguish the evolutionary depth of different patterns of extinction: the same species loss can encompass very different losses of evolutionary history. Furthermore, both taxic and phylogenetic measures are poor metrics of morphologic disparity. Other measures of lost diversity include: functional diversity, architectural components, behavioral and social repertoires, and developmental strategies. The canonical five mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic reveals the loss of different, albeit sometimes overlapping, aspects of loss of evolutionary history. The end-Permian mass extinction (252 Ma) reduced all measures of diversity. The same was not true of other episodes, differences that may reflect their duration and structure. The construction of biodiversity reflects similarly uneven contributions to each of these metrics. Unraveling these contributions requires greater attention to feedbacks on biodiversity and the temporal variability in their contribution to evolutionary history. Taxic diversity increases after mass extinctions, but the response by other aspects of evolutionary history is less well studied. Earlier views of postextinction biotic recovery as the refilling of empty ecospace fail to capture the dynamics of this diversity increase.biodiversity ͉ morphologic disparity ͉ ecosystem engineering

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Estimating the Rock Volume Bias in Paleobiodiversity Studies

Cited by 156 publications

References 12 publications

Rapid recovery from the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Rapid recovery from the Late Ordovician mass extinction

The origins of modern biodiversity on land

Extinction as the loss of evolutionary history

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