Long term patterns Evolution of Biodiversity Chapter 7 Changes in biodiversity caused by originations and extinctions of taxa over geologic time Analyses of diversity in the fossil record requires procedures to correct for biases caused by the incompleteness of the fossil record Trends in taxonomic diversity Marine animals Diversity has increased in a number of different taxa Origination > Extinction Taxa composition has changed 1
Insects Land plants Terrestrial vertebrates Rate of origination has declined Extinction Extinction is caused by failure of organisms to adapt Populations that have been reduced in size are less able to adapt Fewer mutations Less variations 2
Rate of extinction has declined Turnover Taxa with high rates of origination have high rates of extinction These taxa fluctuate greatly and are prone to extinction Volatile species Why are extinction rates declining? This is not what we would predict Extinction probability should be constant Extinction resistance is not selected for when environmental conditions that cause extinction vary Link between origination and extinction Degree of ecological specialization Geographic range Population dynamics 3
Taxonomic survivorship curves Actual survivorship curves Red Queen Hypothesis Red Queen Hypothesis The red queen and Alice find themselves running to keep still they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her...the most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things around them never seemed to changed their places at all... Van Valen (1973) hypothesized that each species has to evolve ( run ) as fast as possible just to survive ( stay in the same place ) because its competitors, predators and parasites also continue to evolve. There is a constant chance that it will fail to survive Then why are they declining? Increase over time in average number of species per family would lower the extinction rate It would take longer for all the species of the same family to go extinct Higher taxa that are more prone to extinction were eliminated early Mechanisms causing extinction Anagenesis (a matter of our definitions) Biological Small, specialized populations Competition Area effects (species-area relationships) Tend to be smaller and more localized Physical Sea level change Climate change Asteroid/comet impacts Can be intense and global 4
Sources of catastrophic extinction Mass extinctions External asteroids, comets Internal Volcanism Catastrophic chemical turnover (oceans) Humans Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction Independent geological evidence for asteroid Consequences Local earthquakes, fires, volcanism Tsunami Global changes in climate Darkness Altered biogeochemistry 60%-80% of all species became extinct Tropical coral reefs disappeared Did K-T impact remove dinosaurs? Diversity is a function of balance between speciation and extinction Extinction > speciation for many groups prior to impact Temporal resolution is difficult to test Rate of loss was extremely high at K-T boundary, however Chicxulub crater Permian-Triassic extinction event Up to 90% species loss Ocean anoxia? (may also have preceded the Cambrian explosion) Evidence (Isozaki, Science 276: 235 1997) Study pelagic cherts Chemical signature of oxygen lacking in sediments of 20 million years at P-T boundary Conclusion: anoxia of oceans (caused by global warming after volcanic eruption) 5
Permian mass extinction Human contributions to extinction? Habitat loss Overexploitation Transportation of exotic, invasive species Human activity: Habitat loss Mass extinctions were selective For example, survivorship of gastropods and bivalves was greater for taxa with planktonic larvae througout the Creteaceous, but at K-T extinction, extinction of planktonic and nonplanktonic forms was equal Shaping of biota by mass extinctions 6
How does diversity change over time? Paleobiologists adapt models of population growth to explain changes in taxonomic diversity Rather than being affected by births and deaths of individuals, the change in number of taxa is affected by origination and extinction of taxa What factors lead to diversification? Release from competition Ecological divergence Co-evolution Provinciality Release from competition Competition Many instances where extinction of one group led to proliferation of another group Gymnosperms declined while angiosperms rose Mammals rose after dinosaurs were extinct Later groups may have caused the extinction of earlier groups direct competition between groups Competitive displacement Existing taxon may have prevented an ecologically similar taxon to proliferate Incumbent or competitive replacement 7
Angiosperms replaced gymnosperms Competitive displacement model Ecological divergence Key adaptation or key innovation An adaptation that enables an organism to occupy a substantially new ecological niche 8
Key adaptation in Sea Urchins Replicated sister group comparison Strong jaws Burrowing adaptations Compare ancestral group to group with key innovation to test if diversification is due to innovation; use more than one clade Provinciality Co-evolution Provinciality is the degree to which the biota is partitioned into geographic regions Caused by changes in distributions of land masses Isolation led to divergent evolution Insect and angiosperm coevolution 9