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Fossil plant relative abundances indicate sudden loss of Late Triassic biodiversity in East Greenland.
Science. 2009 Jun 19; 324(5934):1554-6.Sci

Abstract

The pace of Late Triassic (LT) biodiversity loss is uncertain, yet it could help to decipher causal mechanisms of mass extinction. We investigated relative abundance distributions (RADs) of six LT plant assemblages from the Kap Stewart Group, East Greenland, to determine the pace of collapse of LT primary productivity. RADs displayed not simply decreases in the number of taxa, but decreases in the number of common taxa. Likelihood tests rejected a hypothesis of continuously declining diversity. Instead, the RAD shift occurred over the upper two-to-four fossil plant assemblages and most likely over the last three (final 13 meters), coinciding with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and global warming. Thus, although the LT event did not induce mass extinction of plant families, it accompanied major and abrupt change in their ecology and diversity.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

McElwain JC
UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. jennifer.mcelwain@ucd.ie
Wagner PJ
No affiliation info available
Hesselbo SP
No affiliation info available

MeSH

BiodiversityBiological EvolutionExtinction, BiologicalFossilsGreenlandLikelihood FunctionsModels, BiologicalPlants

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

19541995

Citation

McElwain, Jennifer C., et al. "Fossil Plant Relative Abundances Indicate Sudden Loss of Late Triassic Biodiversity in East Greenland." Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 324, no. 5934, 2009, pp. 1554-6.
McElwain JC, Wagner PJ, Hesselbo SP. Fossil plant relative abundances indicate sudden loss of Late Triassic biodiversity in East Greenland. Science. 2009;324(5934):1554-6.
McElwain, J. C., Wagner, P. J., & Hesselbo, S. P. (2009). Fossil plant relative abundances indicate sudden loss of Late Triassic biodiversity in East Greenland. Science (New York, N.Y.), 324(5934), 1554-6. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1171706
McElwain JC, Wagner PJ, Hesselbo SP. Fossil Plant Relative Abundances Indicate Sudden Loss of Late Triassic Biodiversity in East Greenland. Science. 2009 Jun 19;324(5934):1554-6. PubMed PMID: 19541995.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Fossil plant relative abundances indicate sudden loss of Late Triassic biodiversity in East Greenland. AU - McElwain,Jennifer C, AU - Wagner,Peter J, AU - Hesselbo,Stephen P, PY - 2009/6/23/entrez PY - 2009/6/23/pubmed PY - 2009/7/1/medline SP - 1554 EP - 6 JF - Science (New York, N.Y.) JO - Science VL - 324 IS - 5934 N2 - The pace of Late Triassic (LT) biodiversity loss is uncertain, yet it could help to decipher causal mechanisms of mass extinction. We investigated relative abundance distributions (RADs) of six LT plant assemblages from the Kap Stewart Group, East Greenland, to determine the pace of collapse of LT primary productivity. RADs displayed not simply decreases in the number of taxa, but decreases in the number of common taxa. Likelihood tests rejected a hypothesis of continuously declining diversity. Instead, the RAD shift occurred over the upper two-to-four fossil plant assemblages and most likely over the last three (final 13 meters), coinciding with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and global warming. Thus, although the LT event did not induce mass extinction of plant families, it accompanied major and abrupt change in their ecology and diversity. SN - 1095-9203 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/19541995/Fossil_plant_relative_abundances_indicate_sudden_loss_of_Late_Triassic_biodiversity_in_East_Greenland_ L2 - https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=19541995 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -