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(NAS Colloquium) The Future of Evolution (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Lessons from the Past: Biotic Recoveries from Mass Extinctions
Pages 11-15

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From page 11...
... Analysis of these extensive biotic disturbances provides detailed information about how ecosystems respond to perturbations and the processes underlying diversification, and insights into what we might plausibly expect from our current biodiversity crisis. In this paper, I will place recovery studies within the context of models of biodiversity dynamics, review the results of both modeling work and empirical studies of specific postextinction recoveries, consider the general patterns that can be derived from a comparative study of recoveries, and close with a discussion of the evolutionary significance of biotic recoveries.
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From page 12...
... Conodonts began expanding from deep water environments, which again 5400 1 wwwpnasorg/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.091092698 served as a refuge, onto the shelf during the interregnum between extinction pulses and formed a low diversity assemblage the earliest Silurian (25~. Low-diversity, high-abundance assemblages with broad geographic range are found in the earliest Silurian among graptolites, corals, brachiopods, and some other benthic marine clades (24, 26-28~.
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From page 13...
... At the Nye Kiev locality in Denmark (62) , the first several meters of post-Cretaceous deposits are virtually barren of most groups of fossils other than bourgueticrinid crinoids (this interval corresponds to the very low diversity foram assemblage zone described above)
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From page 14...
... Support for the intuitively attractive hypothesis that mass extinctions preferentially remove morphologically complex forms comes from a recent analysis of trends toward increased sutural complexity in Paleozoic ammonoids (70~. Sutural complexity increased steadily during this interval, but this trend was reset during the Late Devonian and Permo-Triassic mass extinctions.
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From page 15...
... (1997) Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath (Oxford Univ.
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Key Terms

  • mass extinctions
  • extinction events
  • biotic recovery
  • biotic recoveries
  • late devonian

  • late cambrian
  • reef ecosystems
  • survival interval
  • low diversity
  • empirical studies

  • postextinction recoveries
  • positive feedback
  • sutural complexity
  • earliest silurian
  • reef gap

  • coastal plain
  • gulf coastal
  • fossil record
  • geology society
  • recent analysis

  • recovery phase
  • exponential growth
  • carbonate platforms
  • growth models
  • carbon isotope

  • evolutionary significance
  • limited biogeographic
  • recovery process
  • comparative study
  • evolutionary dynamics


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