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Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea.
Nat Commun. 2017 10 10; 8(1):733.NC

Abstract

Mass extinctions have profoundly impacted the evolution of life through not only reducing taxonomic diversity but also reshaping ecosystems and biogeographic patterns. In particular, they are considered to have driven increased biogeographic cosmopolitanism, but quantitative tests of this hypothesis are rare and have not explicitly incorporated information on evolutionary relationships. Here we quantify faunal cosmopolitanism using a phylogenetic network approach for 891 terrestrial vertebrate species spanning the late Permian through Early Jurassic. This key interval witnessed the Permian-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic mass extinctions, the onset of fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangaea, and the origins of dinosaurs and many modern vertebrate groups. Our results recover significant increases in global faunal cosmopolitanism following both mass extinctions, driven mainly by new, widespread taxa, leading to homogenous 'disaster faunas'. Cosmopolitanism subsequently declines in post-recovery communities. These shared patterns in both biotic crises suggest that mass extinctions have predictable influences on animal distribution and may shed light on biodiversity loss in extant ecosystems.Mass extinctions are thought to produce 'disaster faunas', communities dominated by a small number of widespread species. Here, Button et al. develop a phylogenetic network approach to test this hypothesis and find that mass extinctions did increase faunal cosmopolitanism across Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Button DJ
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. david.button44@gmail.com. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA. david.button44@gmail.com. Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, 3510 Thomas Hall, Campus Box 7614, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA. david.button44@gmail.com.
Lloyd GT
School of Earth and Environment, Maths/Earth and Environment Building, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
Ezcurra MD
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, CONICET-Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Avenida Ángel Gallardo 470, Buenos Aires, C1405DJR, Argentina.
Butler RJ
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. r.butler.1@bham.ac.uk.

MeSH

AnimalsBiodiversityBiological EvolutionDinosaursExtinction, BiologicalFossilsPaleontologyPhylogenyPhylogeographyVertebrates

Pub Type(s)

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

Language

eng

PubMed ID

29018290

Citation

Button, David J., et al. "Mass Extinctions Drove Increased Global Faunal Cosmopolitanism On the Supercontinent Pangaea." Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 1, 2017, p. 733.
Button DJ, Lloyd GT, Ezcurra MD, et al. Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea. Nat Commun. 2017;8(1):733.
Button, D. J., Lloyd, G. T., Ezcurra, M. D., & Butler, R. J. (2017). Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea. Nature Communications, 8(1), 733. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00827-7
Button DJ, et al. Mass Extinctions Drove Increased Global Faunal Cosmopolitanism On the Supercontinent Pangaea. Nat Commun. 2017 10 10;8(1):733. PubMed PMID: 29018290.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea. AU - Button,David J, AU - Lloyd,Graeme T, AU - Ezcurra,Martín D, AU - Butler,Richard J, Y1 - 2017/10/10/ PY - 2017/03/20/received PY - 2017/07/28/accepted PY - 2017/10/12/entrez PY - 2017/10/12/pubmed PY - 2018/1/24/medline SP - 733 EP - 733 JF - Nature communications JO - Nat Commun VL - 8 IS - 1 N2 - Mass extinctions have profoundly impacted the evolution of life through not only reducing taxonomic diversity but also reshaping ecosystems and biogeographic patterns. In particular, they are considered to have driven increased biogeographic cosmopolitanism, but quantitative tests of this hypothesis are rare and have not explicitly incorporated information on evolutionary relationships. Here we quantify faunal cosmopolitanism using a phylogenetic network approach for 891 terrestrial vertebrate species spanning the late Permian through Early Jurassic. This key interval witnessed the Permian-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic mass extinctions, the onset of fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangaea, and the origins of dinosaurs and many modern vertebrate groups. Our results recover significant increases in global faunal cosmopolitanism following both mass extinctions, driven mainly by new, widespread taxa, leading to homogenous 'disaster faunas'. Cosmopolitanism subsequently declines in post-recovery communities. These shared patterns in both biotic crises suggest that mass extinctions have predictable influences on animal distribution and may shed light on biodiversity loss in extant ecosystems.Mass extinctions are thought to produce 'disaster faunas', communities dominated by a small number of widespread species. Here, Button et al. develop a phylogenetic network approach to test this hypothesis and find that mass extinctions did increase faunal cosmopolitanism across Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic. SN - 2041-1723 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/29018290/Mass_extinctions_drove_increased_global_faunal_cosmopolitanism_on_the_supercontinent_Pangaea_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -