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Biogeographic response of marine plankton to Cenozoic environmental changes.
Swain, Anshuman; Woodhouse, Adam; Fagan, William F; Fraass, Andrew J; Lowery, Christopher M.
Affiliation
  • Swain A; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. anshumanswain@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Woodhouse A; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. anshumanswain@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Fagan WF; Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA. anshumanswain@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Fraass AJ; Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. anshumanswain@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Lowery CM; University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Nature ; 629(8012): 616-623, 2024 May.
Article in En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38632405
ABSTRACT
In palaeontological studies, groups with consistent ecological and morphological traits across a clade's history (functional groups)1 afford different perspectives on biodiversity dynamics than do species and genera2,3, which are evolutionarily ephemeral. Here we analyse Triton, a global dataset of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminiferal occurrences4, to contextualize changes in latitudinal equitability gradients1, functional diversity, palaeolatitudinal specialization and community equitability. We identify global morphological communities becoming less specialized preceding the richness increase after the Cretaceous-Palaeogene extinction; ecological specialization during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, suggesting inhibitive equatorial temperatures during the peak of the Cenozoic hothouse; increased specialization due to circulation changes across the Eocene-Oligocene transition, preceding the loss of morphological diversity; changes in morphological specialization and richness about 19 million years ago, coeval with pelagic shark extinctions5; delayed onset of changing functional group richness and specialization between hemispheres during the mid-Miocene plankton diversification. The detailed nature of the Triton dataset permits a unique spatiotemporal view of Cenozoic pelagic macroevolution, in which global biogeographic responses of functional communities and richness are decoupled during Cenozoic climate events. The global response of functional groups to similar abiotic selection pressures may depend on the background climatic state (greenhouse or icehouse) to which a group is adapted.
Subject(s)

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Plankton / Climate Change / Foraminifera / Aquatic Organisms / Phylogeography Limits: Animals Language: En Journal: Nature Year: 2024 Document type: Article Affiliation country: United States

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Plankton / Climate Change / Foraminifera / Aquatic Organisms / Phylogeography Limits: Animals Language: En Journal: Nature Year: 2024 Document type: Article Affiliation country: United States