Review
Geography, Physical
Valentin Bault, Catherine Cronier, Ninon Allaire, Claude Monnet
Summary: Utilizing the exceptional record of Devonian trilobites in North Africa, a new dataset was compiled to reveal their evolutionary history and subsequent extinction. The dataset covers 1171 trilobite occurrences from 168 different localities, showing a gradual diversification throughout the Early Devonian until a peak of diversity at the end of the Emsian, followed by a decline during the Eifelian. After the Frasnian events, a faunal change occurred, leading to a major faunal renewal and an increase in deeper water trilobites during the Famennian period. Comparisons with the biodiversity trends of local ammonoids were also made.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Valentin Bault, Diego Balseiro, Claude Monnet, Catherine Cronier
Summary: Trilobites were the most successful clade of marine invertebrates during the Cambrian, but their diversity declined after the end-Ordovician extinction event. This study investigates the evolutionary history and diversity dynamics of trilobites after the crisis, revealing different faunas and environmental influences.
EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Jiachun Li, Zuoyu Sun, Gilles Cuny, Dayong Jiang
Summary: This paper presents a taxonomic study on the diverse chondrichthyan fauna from the Luolou Formation in South China. The study recognizes nine different taxa of sharks, indicating a high diversity and evenness in the shark palaeocommunity. The diverse morphologies of the sharks suggest adaptation to various feeding strategies.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Haijun Song, Huyue Song, Jinnan Tong, Gwyneth W. Gordon, Paul B. Wignall, Li Tian, Wang Zheng, Thomas J. Algeo, Lei Liang, Ruoyu Bai, Kui Wu, Ariel D. Anbar
Summary: The study reveals major fluctuations in the Early Triassic calcium cycle through analyzing calcium isotopes. Three distinct episodes of decreasing conodont delta Ca-44/40 were observed, possibly influenced by factors such as global warming, oceanic anoxia, and intensified continental weathering.
Article
Geography, Physical
Wolfgang Ruebsam, Emanuela Mattioli, Lorenz Schwark
Summary: During the early Toarcian, global climate and environmental change caused the occurrence of the early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event. The response of marine primary producers, dominated by eukaryotic algae, went through multiple ecological events and was influenced by changes in the global carbon cycle and climate system. The events were accompanied by periodic freshening of surface waters, and the overall ecosystem change and extinction resulted from a combination of long-term environmental changes and multiple disturbances.
GLOBAL AND PLANETARY CHANGE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mariusz A. Salamon, Tomasz Brachaniec, Dorota Kolbuk, Anwesha Saha, Przemyslaw Gorzelak
Summary: The study reveals contrasting and complex patterns in body size evolution of crinoids during the Palaeozoic, with two major drops in mean body size observed around mass extinction events, similar to current patterns of shrinking body size due to climate change. Abiotic factors, such as dramatic climate change associated with extinctions, play a significant role in crinoid body size evolution, while biotic drivers also contribute to the patterns observed.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Valentin Bault, Catherine Cronier, Claude Monnet
Summary: The study on Devonian trilobites from North Africa shows that morphological disparity and taxonomic richness are often decoupled in time, especially during the early history of clades. However, this pattern is pervasive during the late evolutionary history of trilobites, with both morphological disparity and taxonomic diversity increasing. The Middle Devonian anoxic events caused a simultaneous drastic loss of both morphologies and taxonomic richness. The weak Famennian recovery suggests that trilobites were a 'dead clade walking' during their late evolutionary history.
HISTORICAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
M. Gabriela Mangano, Luis A. Buatois, Beatriz G. Waisfeld, Diego F. Munoz, N. Emilio Vaccari, Ricardo A. Astini
Summary: The study challenges the assumption that trilobites were exclusively fully marine, presenting evidence of their presence in brackish-water settings. Trilobites with tolerance to salinity stress were able to exploit ecological advantages in marginal-marine environments, migrating into tide-dominated estuaries. This exploration into brackish waters reveals independent instances of salinity tolerance among different trilobite groups.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Geology
Kunio Kaiho, Md. Aftabuzzaman, David S. Jones, Li Tian
Summary: The eruption of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (LIP) is believed to have triggered both terrestrial and marine ecosystem crises, with discrete volcanic eruptions potentially causing the terrestrial crisis followed by the marine crisis in a short period of time. Using coronene and mercury spikes as proxies can help pinpoint the timing and impacts of LIP emplacement more accurately.
Review
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Christopher R. Fielding, Tracy D. Frank, Lauren P. Birgenheier
Summary: A timeframe of glacial and nonglacial intervals in the Carboniferous and Permian systems of eastern Australia was published in 2008. It has been widely used to understand glacial events in the region and compare with events in other parts of the world. This paper presents a reappraisal of the previous timeframe based on new age data and presents updated information on the timing of glaciations and climate changes in eastern Australia.
EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Stefan Vasile, Marton Venczel, Alexandru Petculescu
Summary: This study describes an Early Pleistocene amphibian and squamate assemblage from the Dacian Basin in southern Romania, showing a moderately diverse composition similar to other Romanian sites of the same age and modern Romanian herpetofaunas. The assemblage supports the presence of a permanent freshwater body, nearby forests or shrubberies, and thick soil in a warmer Early Pleistocene climate than present.
PALAEOBIODIVERSITY AND PALAEOENVIRONMENTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tetsuto Miyashita, Robert W. Gess, Kristen Tietjen, Michael Coates
Summary: The study found larval forms of four stem lampreys from the Palaeozoic era that lack the defining traits of modern lamprey ammocoetes, instead exhibiting features similar to adult lampreys. This suggests that ammocoetes may be a specialization of modern lamprey life history rather than relics of vertebrate ancestry. Phylogenetic analyses also indicate that the last common ancestor of hagfishes and lampreys was a predator without a filter-feeding larval phase, implying that `ostracoderms' might better represent the ancestor of all living vertebrates.
Article
Geography, Physical
Valentin Bault
Summary: The Kellwasser events and the Hangenberg event had significant impacts on the Late Devonian marine fauna, including the trilobites. The Kellwasser events resulted in a double extinction event for trilobites, while the Hangenberg event affected trilobites at all taxonomic ranks. However, blind and reduced-eye trilobites became more common in response to environmental changes, and the two surviving orders recovered to a certain extent.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Zhong-Qiang Chen, Xiangdong Wang, Changqun Cao, Mao Luo, Zhen Guo
Summary: Professor Zhuoting Liao, a pioneer palaeontologist, dedicated his life to promoting palaeontological and stratigraphical research in China, establishing new species and stratigraphical frameworks that have been fundamental for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration. His work has contributed greatly to the field, and his legacy lives on through the many young researchers he mentored.
GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Blazej Berkowski, Mikolaj K. Zapalski, Emilia Jarochowska, Phil Alderslade
Summary: Heterocorals, an enigmatic group of Palaeozoic corals, display unique colony development not found in other anthozoans, leading to the proposal of including them in the subclass Octocorallia. This suggestion, based on skeleton structure and branching patterns, requires further research on other heterocoral taxa to be validated. Additionally, changes to the morphological terminology for Heterocorallia are proposed.