Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Saleh, Farid
• Antcliffe, Jonathan B.
• Lustri, Lorenzo
• Daley, Allison C.
• Gibert, Corentin

Titel

Cambrian and Ordovician diversity fluctuations could be resolved through a single ecological hypothesis

Ist Teil von

• Lethaia, 2023-06, Vol.56 (3), p.1-13

Ort / Verlag

Universitetsforlaget

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB*

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• It is hypothesized that the contrast observed between different Cambrian and Ordovician diversity trends could be explained by an ecological process linking animal dispersal with speciation and extinction rates. During the Early Ordovician (possibly earlier), local dispersal (within the same region) occurred asynchronously. When dispersal occurred following environmental changes, invading taxa could have triggered the disappearance of specialized ones, that were unable to adapt to these changes, eventually leading to increased extinction rates. Where local dispersal did not occur, the increase in diversity would have not been obscured by extinctions. This complex interplay of events during the Early Ordovician gave rise to intricate diversity patterns in the Middle Ordovician. The Middle Ordovician is characterized by a particular palaeogeographical context favouring speciation during episodes of inter-regional dispersal. Speciation rates would be partially obscured if local dispersal did not occur in the Early Ordovician, as more specialized taxa that survived the Early Ordovician will eventually go extinct during regional Middle Ordovician dispersal. As such, the contrasting diversity trends may be the result of the asynchronicity of dispersal between animal groups and regions during the Cambrian and the Ordovician.