Tennant, JP;
Mannion, PD;
Upchurch, P;
(2016)
Sea level regulated tetrapod diversity dynamics through the Jurassic/Cretaceous interval.
Nature Communications
, 7
, Article 12737. 10.1038/ncomms12737.
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Abstract
Reconstructing deep time trends in biodiversity remains a central goal for palaeobiologists, but our understanding of the magnitude and tempo of extinctions and radiations is confounded by uneven sampling of the fossil record. In particular, the Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary, 145 million years ago, remains poorly understood, despite an apparent minor extinction and the radiation of numerous important clades. Here we apply a rigorous subsampling approach to a comprehensive tetrapod fossil occurrence data set to assess the group’s macroevolutionary dynamics through the J/K transition. Although much of the signal is exclusively European, almost every higher tetrapod group was affected by a substantial decline across the boundary, culminating in the extinction of several important clades and the ecological release and radiation of numerous modern tetrapod groups. Variation in eustatic sea level was the primary driver of these patterns, controlling biodiversity through availability of shallow marine environments and via allopatric speciation on land.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sea level regulated tetrapod diversity dynamics through the Jurassic/Cretaceous interval |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/ncomms12737 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12737 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, JURASSIC-CRETACEOUS BOUNDARY, COMMON-CAUSE HYPOTHESIS, MASS EXTINCTIONS, FOSSIL RECORD, ROCK RECORD, SAMPLING BIASES, EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY, NORTH-AMERICA, SOUTH-AFRICA, MARINE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1514453 |
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