Search results for "Permian–Triassic extinction event"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Ocean Acidification and the End-Permian Mass Extinction: To What Extent does Evidence Support Hypothesis?
2012
International audience; Ocean acidification in modern oceans is linked to rapid increase in atmospheric CO 2 , raising concern about marine diversity, food security and ecosystem services. Proxy evidence for acidification during past crises may help predict future change, but three issues limit confidence of comparisons between modern and ancient ocean acidification, illustrated from the end-Permian extinction, 252 million years ago: (1) problems with evidence for ocean acidification preserved in sedimentary rocks, where proposed marine dissolution surfaces may be subaerial. Sedimentary evidence that the extinction was partly due to ocean acidification is therefore inconclusive; (2) Fossils…
Transient metazoan reefs in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction
2011
5 pages; International audience; Recovery from the devastating Permian-Triassic mass extinction about 252 million years ago is usually assumed to have spanned the entire 5 million years of the Early Triassic epoch1,2. The post-crisis interval was characterized by large-scale fluctuations of the global carbon cycle and harsh marine conditions, including a combination of ocean acidification, euxinia, and fluctuating productivity3. During this interval, metazoan-dominated reefs are thought to have been replaced by microbial deposits that are considered the hallmark of the Early Triassic4-7. Here we use field and microscopic investigations to document Early Triassic bioaccumulations and reefs f…
In the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction: the microbialite refuge?
2013
7 pages; International audience; We present the first study of micro-crustaceans (ostracods) associated with microbial crusts in the aftermath of the most devastating extinction, the end-Permian extinction (EPE). These post-extinction microbialites dominated shallow shelf marine environments and were traditionally considered as devoid of any associated fauna. We present a micro-palaeontological analysis of a large record from microbial and non-microbial settings following the EPE. This dataset documents the proliferation of ostracods strictly associated with microbialites. Based on the diet of extant ostracods and uniformitarianism, we propose that the abundant microbes in the mats served a…
Coping between crises: Early Triassic–early Jurassic bivalve diversity dynamics
2011
The Triassic is bounded by two of the most severe biotic crises, but nevertheless this time was, for bivalves, both a recovery and a diversification period, and a moment to fully exploit some of their evolutionary novelties. Just how and when this was achieved is analyzed in this paper, which covers Induan to Sinemurian bivalve diversity, based on a newly compiled database. Taxonomic diversity and ecospace dynamics are examined separately. Diversity and evolutionary rates were assessed, extinction selectivity was tested using a resampling algorithm, and cohort analysis was used to study extinction patterns. During the Early Triassic most bivalve genera were survivors from the Permian and th…
Challenging Darwin: Evolution of Triassic Conodonts and Their Struggle for Life in a Changing World
2017
Abstract The phylogeny and distribution of Triassic conodonts reveal many aspects of their natural history. Conodonts incorporate the morphologic response to temperature as well as to eustatic cycles. Speciation, radiation, and extinction are not fortuitous and evolution uses heterochrony (progenesis and neoteny) in response to stress-generating events. Proteromorphosis (reappearance of ancestral morphs) and paedomorphosis (retention of juvenile traits) is a reaction to sublethal environmental stress. This often follows radiation of fully developed forms in the recovery stage after extinction that timely matches transgressions. Evolutionary retrogradation (neoteny) during eustatic high stan…
Microbial deposits in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction: A diverging case from the Mineral Mountains (Utah, USA)
2015
40 pages; International audience; The Lower Triassic Mineral Mountains area (Utah, USA) preserves diversified Smithian and Spathian reefs and bioaccumulations that contain fenestral-microbialites and various benthic and pelagic organisms. Ecological and environmental changes during the Early Triassic are commonly assumed to be associated with numerous perturbations (productivity changes, acidifica-tion, redox changes, hypercapnia, eustatism and temperature changes) post-dating the Permian–Triassic mass extinction. New data acquired in the Mineral Mountains sediments provide evidence to decipher the relationships between depositional environments and the growth and distribution of microbial …