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Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern Neotropical rainforests
Ist Teil von
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2021-04, Vol.372 (6537), p.63-68
Ort / Verlag
United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Erscheinungsjahr
2021
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The end-Cretaceous event was catastrophic for terrestrial communities worldwide, yet its long-lasting effect on tropical forests remains largely unknown. We quantified plant extinction and ecological change in tropical forests resulting from the end-Cretaceous event using fossil pollen (>50,000 occurrences) and leaves (>6000 specimens) from localities in Colombia. Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) rainforests were characterized by an open canopy and diverse plant-insect interactions. Plant diversity declined by 45% at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and did not recover for ~6 million years. Paleocene forests resembled modern Neotropical rainforests, with a closed canopy and multistratal structure dominated by angiosperms. The end-Cretaceous event triggered a long interval of low plant diversity in the Neotropics and the evolutionary assembly of today's most diverse terrestrial ecosystem.