Sudden Productivity Collapse Associated with the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Mass Extinction

Ward, Peter D.; Haggart, James W.; Carter, E. S.; Wilbur, David; Tipper, H W; Evans, Timothy C.

doi:10.1126/science.1058574

Cited by 230 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Dramatic reductions in primary production are thought to have characterized major mass extinction episodes in the past (22) and episodes of climate change, such as the more recent interglacials (41). During the end-Cretaceous extinction event, changes in ocean nutrient supply may have been a crucial factor in driving echinoid extinction because of the preferential survival of depositfeeding taxa such as spatangoids (42).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At intervals throughout evolutionary history, organisms have faced large-scale collapses of primary productivity due to abiotic environmental changes, such as volcanism and global warming, that often are associated with mass extinctions of species (22,23). This raises the possibility that random search patterns such as Lévy walks, with characteristic long steps to new locations, might have acted to increase the likelihood of ancient organisms finding scarce resources, as the search time to find distant patches is minimized in this movement strategy compared with Brownian motion (2).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

Sims

Reynolds

Humphries

et al. 2014

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

102

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Efficient searching is crucial for timely location of food and other resources. Recent studies show that diverse living animals use a theoretically optimal scale-free random search for sparse resources known as a Lévy walk, but little is known of the origins and evolution of foraging behavior and the search strategies of extinct organisms. Here, using simulations of self-avoiding trace fossil trails, we show that randomly introduced strophotaxis (U-turns)-initiated by obstructions such as self-trail avoidance or innate cueing-leads to random looping patterns with clustering across increasing scales that is consistent with the presence of Lévy walks. This predicts that optimal Lévy searches may emerge from simple behaviors observed in fossil trails. We then analyzed fossilized trails of benthic marine organisms by using a novel path analysis technique and find the first evidence, to our knowledge, of Lévy-like search strategies in extinct animals. Our results show that simple search behaviors of extinct animals in heterogeneous environments give rise to hierarchically nested Brownian walk clusters that converge to optimal Lévy patterns. Primary productivity collapse and large-scale food scarcity characterizing mass extinctions evident in the fossil record may have triggered adaptation of optimal Lévy-like searches. The findings suggest that Lévy-like behavior has been used by foragers since at least the Eocene but may have a more ancient origin, which might explain recent widespread observations of such patterns among modern taxa.Brownian motion | superdiffusion | scale invariance | climate change

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

Sims

Reynolds

Humphries

et al. 2014

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

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1-3) suggests that per-plate extinction risk varied considerably among genera. Each of these events also is associated with geological and geochemical evidence for rapid, global environmental disruption coincident with geologically rapid extinction (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Previous studies have identified ecological and physiological extinction selectivity patterns that may account for differences in per-plate extinction risk among genera during these intervals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of geographic range on extinction risk during background and mass extinction

Payne

Finnegan

2007

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

255

318

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Wide geographic range is generally thought to buffer taxa against extinction, but the strength of this effect has not been investigated for the great majority of the fossil record. Although the majority of genus extinctions have occurred between major mass extinctions, little is known about extinction selectivity regimes during these ''background'' intervals. Consequently, the question of whether selectivity regimes differ between background and mass extinctions is largely unresolved. Using logistic regression, we evaluated the selectivity of genus survivorship with respect to geographic range by using a global database of fossil benthic marine invertebrates spanning the Cambrian through the Neogene periods, an interval of Ϸ500 My. Our results show that wide geographic range has been significantly and positively associated with survivorship for the great majority of Phanerozoic time. Moreover, the significant association between geographic range and survivorship remains after controlling for differences in species richness and abundance among genera. However, mass extinctions and several second-order extinction events exhibit less geographic range selectivity than predicted by range alone. Widespread environmental disturbance can explain the reduced association between geographic range and extinction risk by simultaneously affecting genera with similar ecological and physiological characteristics on global scales. Although factors other than geographic range have certainly affected extinction risk during many intervals, geographic range is likely the most consistently significant predictor of extinction risk in the marine fossil record.invertebrate ͉ Phanerozoic ͉ selectivity ͉ survivorship

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“…[The longer period of 13 C-depleted values during the CAMP extrusion might be the result of the biotic crisis itself (9).] A carbon dioxide super-greenhouse is supported by paleobotanical studies (10) and evidence of a crisis among calcareous organisms in the oceans (11).…”

Section: Causes Of Extinctionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Mass extinctions of life and catastrophic flood basalt volcanism

Rampino

2010

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

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Sudden Productivity Collapse Associated with the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Mass Extinction

Cited by 230 publications

References 7 publications

Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

The effect of geographic range on extinction risk during background and mass extinction

Mass extinctions of life and catastrophic flood basalt volcanism

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