Work

Physiology and climate change explain unusually high similarity across marine communities after end-Permian mass extinction

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Fossil assemblages exhibit a global depletion in taxonomic distinctiveness in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction (~252 million years ago), but little is known about why. Here, we examine whether biotic homogenization can be explained by tropical survivors tracking an expansion of their preferred habitat, measured in terms of the ratio of environmental oxygen supply to metabolic demand. We compare spatial similarity in community composition among marine invertebrate fossils represented by bivalve and gastropod fossils with predictions from an ecophysiological model of habitat that diagnoses areas in the ocean that can sustain the aerobic requirements of marine invertebrates. Modeled biogeographic responses to climate change yield an increase in global similarity of community composition among surviving ecophysiotypes, consistent with patterns in the fossil record and arguing for a physiological control on earliest Triassic biogeography.

Source: Science Advances

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr4199

Authors: Jood A. Al Aswad, Justin L. Penn, Pedro M. Monarrez, Mohamad Bazzi, Curtis Deutsch, Jonathan L. Payne

Institutions: Stanford University, Princeton University, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

Subfield: Paleontology

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,500

Funders: Princeton University, Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission