A bottom-up perspective on ecosystem change in Mesozoic oceans
Name
20161755.full.pdf
Size
607.67 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
66f2a1cd1371c5615cf06b0524a9d0f1
Author(s)
Knoll, Andrew H.
Follows, Michael J
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Citation
Knoll, Andrew H. et al “A Bottom-up Perspective on Ecosystem Change in Mesozoic Oceans.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283, 1841 (October 2016): 20161755 © 2016 The Authors
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic marine animals across multiple phyla record secular trends in morphology, environmental distribution, and inferred behaviour that are parsimoniously explained in terms of increased selection pressure from durophagous predators. Another systemic change in Mesozoic marine ecosystems, less widely appreciated than the first, may help to explain the observed animal record. Fossils, biomarker molecules, and molecular clocks indicate a major shift in phytoplankton composition, as mixotrophic dinoflagellates, coccolithophorids and, later, diatoms radiated across shelves. Models originally developed to probe the ecology and biogeography of modern phytoplankton enable us to evaluate the ecosystem consequences of these phytoplankton radiations. In particular, our models suggest that the radiation of mixotrophic dinoflagellates and the subsequent diversification of marine diatoms would have accelerated the transfer of primary production upward into larger size classes and higher trophic levels. Thus, phytoplankton evolution provides a mechanism capable of facilitating the observed evolutionary shift in Mesozoic marine animals.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1098/RSPB.2016.1755
