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Chen J, Hogancamp N, Lu M, Ikejiri T, Malina N, Ojeda A, Sun Y, Lu Y. Lipid biomarkers recording marine microbial community structure changes through the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction event. GEOBIOLOGY 2023; 21:725-742. [PMID: 37455407 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Studying the response and recovery of marine microbial communities during mass extinction events provides an evolutionary window through which to understand the adaptation and resilience of the marine ecosystem in the face of significant environmental disturbances. The goal of this study is to reconstruct changes in the marine microbial community structure through the Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) transition. We performed a multiproxy investigation on a drill core of the Upper Devonian New Albany Shale from the Illinois Basin (western Kentucky, USA). Aryl isoprenoids show green sulfur bacteria expansion and associated photic zone euxinia (PZE) enhancement during the F-F interval. These changes can be attributed to augmented terrigenous influxes, as recorded collectively by the long-chain/short-chain normal alkane ratio, carbon preference index, C30 moretane/C30 hopane, and diahopane index. Hopane/sterane ratios reveal a more pronounced dominance of eukaryotic over prokaryotic production during the mass extinction interval. Sterane distributions indicate that the microalgal community was primarily composed of green algae clades, and their dominance became more pronounced during the F-F interval and continued to rise in the subsequent periods. The 2α-methylhopane index values do not show an evident shift during the mass extinction interval, whereas the 3β-methylhopane index values record a greater abundance of methanotrophic bacteria during the extinction interval, suggesting enhanced methane cycling due to intensified oxygen depletion. Overall, the Illinois Basin during the F-F extinction experienced heightened algal productivity due to intensified terrigenous influxes, exhibiting similarities to contemporary coastal oceans that are currently undergoing globalized cultural eutrophication. The observed microbial community shifts associated with the F-F environmental disturbances were largely restricted to the extinction interval, which suggests a relatively stable, resilient marine microbial ecosystem during the Late Devonian.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Chen
- Molecular Eco-Geochemistry (MEG) Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
| | - Nicholas Hogancamp
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Man Lu
- Molecular Eco-Geochemistry (MEG) Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
| | - Takehito Ikejiri
- Molecular Eco-Geochemistry (MEG) Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
- Alabama Museum of Natural History, The University of Alabama, Auburn, Alabama, USA
| | - Natalia Malina
- Department of Geosciences, Auburn University, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
| | - Ann Ojeda
- Department of Geosciences, Auburn University, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
| | - YongGe Sun
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - YueHan Lu
- Molecular Eco-Geochemistry (MEG) Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
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Wiemann J, Menéndez I, Crawford JM, Fabbri M, Gauthier JA, Hull PM, Norell MA, Briggs DEG. Fossil biomolecules reveal an avian metabolism in the ancestral dinosaur. Nature 2022; 606:522-526. [PMID: 35614213 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04770-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Birds and mammals independently evolved the highest metabolic rates among living animals1. Their metabolism generates heat that enables active thermoregulation1, shaping the ecological niches they can occupy and their adaptability to environmental change2. The metabolic performance of birds, which exceeds that of mammals, is thought to have evolved along their stem lineage3-10. However, there is no proxy that enables the direct reconstruction of metabolic rates from fossils. Here we use in situ Raman and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to quantify the in vivo accumulation of metabolic lipoxidation signals in modern and fossil amniote bones. We observe no correlation between atmospheric oxygen concentrations11 and metabolic rates. Inferred ancestral states reveal that the metabolic rates consistent with endothermy evolved independently in mammals and plesiosaurs, and are ancestral to ornithodirans, with increasing rates along the avian lineage. High metabolic rates were acquired in pterosaurs, ornithischians, sauropods and theropods well before the advent of energetically costly adaptations, such as flight in birds. Although they had higher metabolic rates ancestrally, ornithischians reduced their metabolic abilities towards ectothermy. The physiological activities of such ectotherms were dependent on environmental and behavioural thermoregulation12, in contrast to the active lifestyles of endotherms1. Giant sauropods and theropods were not gigantothermic9,10, but true endotherms. Endothermy in many Late Cretaceous taxa, in addition to crown mammals and birds, suggests that attributes other than metabolism determined their fate during the terminal Cretaceous mass extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmina Wiemann
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
- Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - Iris Menéndez
- Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Cambio Medioambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Matteo Fabbri
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jacques A Gauthier
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Pincelli M Hull
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Mark A Norell
- Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
| | - Derek E G Briggs
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
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Smith KT, Bhullar BAS, Bloch JI. New Diminutive Eocene Lizard Reveals High K-Pg Survivorship and Taxonomic Diversity of Stem Xenosaurs in North America. AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES 2022. [DOI: 10.1206/3986.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Krister T. Smith
- Department of Messel Research and Mammalogy, Senckenberg Research Institute, and Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute for Ecology, Diversity and Evolution, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; and Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York
| | - Jonathan I. Bloch
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
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Naafs BDA, Bianchini G, Monteiro FM, Sánchez-Baracaldo P. The occurrence of 2-methylhopanoids in modern bacteria and the geological record. GEOBIOLOGY 2022; 20:41-59. [PMID: 34291867 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/10/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The 2-methylhopanes (2-MeHops) are molecular fossils of 2-methylbacteriohopanepolyols (2-MeBHPs) and among the oldest biomarkers on Earth. However, these biomarkers' specific sources are currently unexplained, including whether they reflect an expansion of marine cyanobacteria. Here, we study the occurrence of 2-MeBHPs and the genes involved in their synthesis in modern bacteria and explore the occurrence of 2-MeHops in the geological record. We find that the gene responsible for 2-MeBHP synthesis (hpnP) is widespread in cyano- and ⍺-proteobacteria, but absent or very limited in other classes/phyla of bacteria. This result is consistent with the dominance of 2-MeBHP in cyano- and ⍺-proteobacterial cultures. The review of their geological occurrence indicates that 2-MeHops are found from the Paleoproterozoic onwards, although some Precambrian samples might be biased by drilling contamination. During the Phanerozoic, high 2-MeHops' relative abundances (index >15%) are associated with climatic and biogeochemical perturbations such as the Permo/Triassic boundary and the Oceanic Anoxic Events. We analyzed the modern habitat of all hpnP-containing bacteria and find that the only one species coming from an undisputed open marine habitat is an ⍺-proteobacterium acting upon the marine nitrogen cycle. Although organisms can change their habitat in response to environmental stress and evolutionary pressure, we speculate that the high sedimentary 2-MeHops' occurrence observed during the Phanerozoic reflect ⍺-proteobacteria expansion and marine N-cycle perturbations in response to climatic and environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- B D A Naafs
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry and School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - G Bianchini
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - F M Monteiro
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Lethal microbial blooms delayed freshwater ecosystem recovery following the end-Permian extinction. Nat Commun 2021; 12:5511. [PMID: 34535650 PMCID: PMC8448769 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25711-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Harmful algal and bacterial blooms linked to deforestation, soil loss and global warming are increasingly frequent in lakes and rivers. We demonstrate that climate changes and deforestation can drive recurrent microbial blooms, inhibiting the recovery of freshwater ecosystems for hundreds of millennia. From the stratigraphic successions of the Sydney Basin, Australia, our fossil, sedimentary and geochemical data reveal bloom events following forest ecosystem collapse during the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history, the end-Permian event (EPE; c. 252.2 Ma). Microbial communities proliferated in lowland fresh and brackish waterbodies, with algal concentrations typical of modern blooms. These initiated before any trace of post-extinction recovery vegetation but recurred episodically for >100 kyrs. During the following 3 Myrs, algae and bacteria thrived within short-lived, poorly-oxygenated, and likely toxic lakes and rivers. Comparisons to global deep-time records indicate that microbial blooms are persistent freshwater ecological stressors during warming-driven extinction events. Harmful algal and bacterial blooms are increasingly frequent in lakes and rivers. From the Sydney Basin, Australia, this study uses fossil, sedimentary and geochemical data to reveal bloom events following forest ecosystem collapse during the end-Permian event and that blooms have consistently followed warming-related extinction events, inhibiting the recovery of freshwater ecosystems for millennia.
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Gibbs SJ, Bown PR, Ward BA, Alvarez SA, Kim H, Archontikis OA, Sauterey B, Poulton AJ, Wilson J, Ridgwell A. Algal plankton turn to hunting to survive and recover from end-Cretaceous impact darkness. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:6/44/eabc9123. [PMID: 33127682 PMCID: PMC7608818 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc9123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 09/16/2020] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The end-Cretaceous bolide impact triggered the devastation of marine ecosystems. However, the specific kill mechanism(s) are still debated, and how primary production subsequently recovered remains elusive. We used marine plankton microfossils and eco-evolutionary modeling to determine strategies for survival and recovery, finding that widespread phagotrophy (prey ingestion) was fundamental to plankton surviving the impact and also for the subsequent reestablishment of primary production. Ecological selectivity points to extreme post-impact light inhibition as the principal kill mechanism, with the marine food chain temporarily reset to a bacteria-dominated state. Subsequently, in a sunlit ocean inhabited by only rare survivor grazers but abundant small prey, it was mixotrophic nutrition (autotrophy and heterotrophy) and increasing cell sizes that enabled the eventual reestablishment of marine food webs some 2 million years later.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha J Gibbs
- Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
| | - Paul R Bown
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Ben A Ward
- Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
| | - Sarah A Alvarez
- University of Gibraltar, Europa Point Campus, Gibraltar GX11 1AA, Gibraltar
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Hojung Kim
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Odysseas A Archontikis
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Boris Sauterey
- Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 8197, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1024, 46 rue d'Ulm, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Alex J Poulton
- The Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Science and Technology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
| | - Jamie Wilson
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK
| | - Andy Ridgwell
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
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Alvarez SA, Gibbs SJ, Bown PR, Kim H, Sheward RM, Ridgwell A. Diversity decoupled from ecosystem function and resilience during mass extinction recovery. Nature 2019; 574:242-245. [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1590-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Yang GD, Agapow PM, Yedid G. The tree balance signature of mass extinction is erased by continued evolution in clades of constrained size with trait-dependent speciation. PLoS One 2017. [PMID: 28644846 PMCID: PMC5482465 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The kind and duration of phylogenetic topological “signatures” left in the wake of macroevolutionary events remain poorly understood. To this end, we examined a broad range of simulated phylogenies generated using trait-biased, heritable speciation probabilities and mass extinction that could be either random or selective on trait value, but also using background extinction and diversity-dependence to constrain clade sizes. In keeping with prior results, random mass extinction increased imbalance of clades that recovered to pre-extinction size, but was a relatively weak effect. Mass extinction that was selective on trait values tended to produce clades of similar or greater balance compared to random extinction or controls. Allowing evolution to continue past the point of clade-size recovery resulted in erosion and eventual erasure of this signal, with all treatments converging on similar values of imbalance, except for very intense extinction regimes targeted at taxa with high speciation rates. Return to a more balanced state with extended post-extinction evolution was also associated with loss of the previous phylogenetic root in most treatments. These results further demonstrate that while a mass extinction event can produce a recognizable phylogenetic signal, its effects become increasingly obscured the further an evolving clade gets from that event, with any sharp imbalance due to unrelated evolutionary factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guan-Dong Yang
- Department of Zoology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Paul-Michael Agapow
- Data Science Institute, William Penney Laboratory, Imperial College, South Kensington, London, United Kingdom
| | - Gabriel Yedid
- Department of Zoology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
- * E-mail:
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Lack of Methylated Hopanoids Renders the Cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme Sensitive to Osmotic and pH Stress. Appl Environ Microbiol 2017; 83:AEM.00777-17. [PMID: 28455341 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00777-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2017] [Accepted: 04/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
To investigate the function of 2-methylhopanoids in modern cyanobacteria, the hpnP gene coding for the radical S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) methylase protein that acts on the C-2 position of hopanoids was deleted from the filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133S. The resulting ΔhpnP mutant lacked all 2-methylhopanoids but was found to produce much higher levels of two bacteriohopanepentol isomers than the wild type. Growth rates of the ΔhpnP mutant cultures were not significantly different from those of the wild type under standard growth conditions. Akinete formation was also not impeded by the absence of 2-methylhopanoids. The relative abundances of the different hopanoid structures in akinete-dominated cultures of the wild-type and ΔhpnP mutant strains were similar to those of vegetative cell-dominated cultures. However, the ΔhpnP mutant was found to have decreased growth rates under both pH and osmotic stress, confirming a role for 2-methylhopanoids in stress tolerance. Evidence of elevated photosystem II yield and NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase activity in the ΔhpnP mutant under stress conditions, compared to the wild type, suggested that the absence of 2-methylhopanoids increases cellular metabolic rates under stress conditions.IMPORTANCE As the first group of organisms to develop oxygenic photosynthesis, Cyanobacteria are central to the evolutionary history of life on Earth and the subsequent oxygenation of the atmosphere. To investigate the origin of cyanobacteria and the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis, geobiologists use biomarkers, the remnants of lipids produced by different organisms that are found in geologic sediments. 2-Methylhopanes have been considered indicative of cyanobacteria in some environmental settings, with the parent lipids 2-methylhopanoids being present in many contemporary cyanobacteria. We have created a Nostoc punctiforme ΔhpnP mutant strain that does not produce 2-methylhopanoids to assess the influence of 2-methylhopanoids on stress tolerance. Increased metabolic activity in the mutant under stress indicates compensatory alterations in metabolism in the absence of 2-methylhopanoids.
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Henehan MJ, Hull PM, Penman DE, Rae JWB, Schmidt DN. Biogeochemical significance of pelagic ecosystem function: an end-Cretaceous case study. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20150510. [PMID: 27114586 PMCID: PMC4843705 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Pelagic ecosystem function is integral to global biogeochemical cycling, and plays a major role in modulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2). Uncertainty as to the effects of human activities on marine ecosystem function hinders projection of future atmospheric pCO2 To this end, events in the geological past can provide informative case studies in the response of ecosystem function to environmental and ecological changes. Around the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary, two such events occurred: Deccan large igneous province (LIP) eruptions and massive bolide impact at the Yucatan Peninsula. Both perturbed the environment, but only the impact coincided with marine mass extinction. As such, we use these events to directly contrast the response of marine biogeochemical cycling to environmental perturbation with and without changes in global species richness. We measure this biogeochemical response using records of deep-sea carbonate preservation. We find that Late Cretaceous Deccan volcanism prompted transient deep-sea carbonate dissolution of a larger magnitude and timescale than predicted by geochemical models. Even so, the effect of volcanism on carbonate preservation was slight compared with bolide impact. Empirical records and geochemical models support a pronounced increase in carbonate saturation state for more than 500 000 years following the mass extinction of pelagic carbonate producers at the K-Pg boundary. These examples highlight the importance of pelagic ecosystems in moderating climate and ocean chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Henehan
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Pincelli M Hull
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Donald E Penman
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - James W B Rae
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, St Andrews KY16 9AL, UK
| | - Daniela N Schmidt
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
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Abstract
Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) comprise nearly half of all modern vertebrate diversity, and are an ecologically and numerically dominant megafauna in most aquatic environments. Crown teleost fishes diversified relatively recently, during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene, although the exact timing and cause of their radiation and rise to ecological dominance is poorly constrained. Here we use microfossil teeth and shark dermal scales (ichthyoliths) preserved in deep-sea sediments to study the changes in the pelagic fish community in the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene. We find that the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction event marked a profound change in the structure of ichthyolith communities around the globe: Whereas shark denticles outnumber ray-finned fish teeth in Cretaceous deep-sea sediments around the world, there is a dramatic increase in the proportion of ray-finned fish teeth to shark denticles in the Paleocene. There is also an increase in size and numerical abundance of ray-finned fish teeth at the boundary. These changes are sustained through at least the first 24 million years of the Cenozoic. This new fish community structure began at the K/Pg mass extinction, suggesting the extinction event played an important role in initiating the modern "age of fishes."
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Persistent ecological shifts in marine molluscan assemblages across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015; 112:7207-12. [PMID: 25941366 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1422248112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Contemporary biodiversity loss and population declines threaten to push the biosphere toward a tipping point with irreversible effects on ecosystem composition and function. As a potential example of a global-scale regime shift in the geological past, we assessed ecological changes across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction based on molluscan assemblages at four well-studied sites. By contrasting preextinction and postextinction rank abundance and numerical abundance in 19 molluscan modes of life--each defined as a unique combination of mobility level, feeding mode, and position relative to the substrate--we find distinct shifts in ecospace utilization, which significantly exceed predictions from null models. The magnitude of change in functional traits relative to normal temporal fluctuations at far-flung sites indicates that molluscan assemblages shifted to differently structured systems and faunal response was global. The strengths of temporal ecological shifts, however, are mostly within the range of preextinction site-to-site variability, demonstrating that local ecological turnover was similar to geographic variation over a broad latitudinal range. In conjunction with varied site-specific temporal patterns of individual modes of life, these spatial and temporal heterogeneities argue against a concerted phase shift of molluscan assemblages from one well-defined regime to another. At a broader ecological level, by contrast, congruent tendencies emerge and suggest deterministic processes. These patterns comprise the well-known increase of deposit-feeding mollusks in postextinction assemblages and increases in predators and predator-resistant modes of life, i.e., those characterized by elevated mobility and infaunal life habits.
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Wörmer L, Lipp JS, Hinrichs KU. Comprehensive Analysis of Microbial Lipids in Environmental Samples Through HPLC-MS Protocols. SPRINGER PROTOCOLS HANDBOOKS 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/8623_2015_183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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Jia C, Huang J, Kershaw S, Luo G, Farabegoli E, Perri MC, Chen L, Bai X, Xie S. Microbial response to limited nutrients in shallow water immediately after the end-Permian mass extinction. GEOBIOLOGY 2012; 10:60-71. [PMID: 22168223 DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4669.2011.00310.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Previous work indicates that a variety of microbes bloomed in the oceans after the end-Permian faunal mass extinction, but evidence is sporadically documented. Thus, the nature and geographic distribution of such microbes and their associations are unclear, addressed in this study using a series of biomarker groups. On the basis of microbial biomarker records of the 2-methylhopane index, evidence is presented for cyanobacterial blooms in both the western and eastern Tethys Sea and in both shallow and deep waters, after the mass extinction. The enhanced relative abundance of C(28) (expressed by the C(28) /C(29) ratio of) regular steranes suggests a bloom of prasinophyte algae occurred immediately after the end-Permian faunal extinction, comparable with those observed in some other mass extinctions in Phanerozoic. Significantly, cyanobacteria and prasinophyte algae show a synchronized onset of bloom in the shallow water Bulla section, north Italy, inferring for the first time their coupled response to the biotic crisis and the associated environmental conditions. However, in Meishan of Zhejiang Province in south China, the bloom declined earlier than in Bulla. The association of increased 2-methylhopane index with a negative shift in the nitrogen isotope composition infers a scenario of enhanced nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria immediately after the faunal mass extinction. N(2) fixation by cyanobacteria is here interpreted to have provided prasinophyte algae with ammonium in nutrient-limited shallow waters, and thus caused their associated blooms.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Jia
- State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
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End-Cretaceous marine mass extinction not caused by productivity collapse. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2011; 109:728-32. [PMID: 22207626 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1110601109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
An asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous caused mass extinction, but extinction mechanisms are not well-understood. The collapse of sea surface to sea floor carbon isotope gradients has been interpreted as reflecting a global collapse of primary productivity (Strangelove Ocean) or export productivity (Living Ocean), which caused mass extinction higher in the marine food chain. Phytoplankton-dependent benthic foraminifera on the deep-sea floor, however, did not suffer significant extinction, suggesting that export productivity persisted at a level sufficient to support their populations. We compare benthic foraminiferal records with benthic and bulk stable carbon isotope records from the Pacific, Southeast Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. We conclude that end-Cretaceous decrease in export productivity was moderate, regional, and insufficient to explain marine mass extinction. A transient episode of surface ocean acidification may have been the main cause of extinction of calcifying plankton and ammonites, and recovery of productivity may have been as fast in the oceans as on land.
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Ribeiro S, Berge T, Lundholm N, Andersen TJ, Abrantes F, Ellegaard M. Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness. Nat Commun 2011; 2:311. [PMID: 21587228 PMCID: PMC3113231 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2010] [Accepted: 04/13/2011] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Photosynthesis evolved in the oceans more than 3 billion years ago and has persisted throughout all major extinction events in Earth's history. The most recent of such events is linked to an abrupt collapse of primary production due to darkness following the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago. Coastal phytoplankton groups (particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms) appear to have been resilient to this biotic crisis, but the reason for their high survival rates is still unknown. Here we show that the growth performance of dinoflagellate cells germinated from resting stages is unaffected by up to a century of dormancy. Our results clearly indicate that phytoplankton resting stages can endure periods of darkness far exceeding those estimated for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and may effectively aid the rapid resurgence of primary production in coastal areas after events of prolonged photosynthesis shut-down.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Ribeiro
- Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 CPH-K, Denmark.
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Schulte P, Alegret L, Arenillas I, Arz JA, Barton PJ, Bown PR, Bralower TJ, Christeson GL, Claeys P, Cockell CS, Collins GS, Deutsch A, Goldin TJ, Goto K, Grajales-Nishimura JM, Grieve RAF, Gulick SPS, Johnson KR, Kiessling W, Koeberl C, Kring DA, MacLeod KG, Matsui T, Melosh J, Montanari A, Morgan JV, Neal CR, Nichols DJ, Norris RD, Pierazzo E, Ravizza G, Rebolledo-Vieyra M, Reimold WU, Robin E, Salge T, Speijer RP, Sweet AR, Urrutia-Fucugauchi J, Vajda V, Whalen MT, Willumsen PS. The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. Science 2010; 327:1214-8. [PMID: 20203042 DOI: 10.1126/science.1177265] [Citation(s) in RCA: 253] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Peter Schulte
- GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schlossgarten 5, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany.
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