Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-lpg2g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T20:38:11.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When bivalves took over the world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Margaret L. Fraiser and
David J. Bottjer
Margaret L. Fraiser
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203. E-mail: mfraiser@uwm.edu
David J. Bottjer
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0740
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The end-Permian mass extinction is commonly portrayed not only as a massive biodiversity crisis but also as the time when marine benthic faunas changed from the Paleozoic Fauna, dominated by rhynchonelliform brachiopod taxa, to the Modern Fauna, dominated by gastropod and bivalve taxa. After the end-Permian mass extinction, scenarios involving the Mesozoic Marine Revolution portray a steady increase in numerical dominance by these benthic molluscs as largely due to the evolutionary effects of an “arms race.” We report here a new global paleoecological database from study of shell beds that shows a dramatic geologically sudden earliest Triassic takeover by bivalves as numerical dominants in level-bottom benthic marine communities, which continued through the Early Triassic. Three bivalve genera were responsible for this switch, none of which has any particular morphological features to distinguish it from many typical Paleozoic bivalve genera. The numerical success of these Early Triassic bivalves cannot be attributed to any of the well-known morphological evolutionary innovations of post-Paleozoic bivalves that characterize the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Rather, their ability to mount this takeover most likely was due to the large extinction of rhynchonelliform brachiopods during the end-Permian mass extinction and aided by their environmental distribution and physiological characteristics that enabled them to thrive during periods of oceanic and atmospheric stress during the Permian/Triassic transition.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , Summer 2007, pp. 397 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Literature Cited

Algeo, T. J., Ellwood, B. B., Nguyen, T. K T., Rowe, H., and Maynard, J. B. 2007. The Permo-Triassic boundary at Nhi Tao, Vietnam: evidence for recurrent influx of sulfidic watermasses to a shallow-marine carbonate platform. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (in press).Google Scholar
Alroy, J. 2004. Are Sepkoski's evolutionary faunas dynamically coherent? Evolutionary Ecology Research 6: 1–32.Google Scholar
Ausich, W. I. 1997. Regional encrinites: a vanished lithofacies. pp. 509–519in Brett, C. E. and Baird, G. C., eds. Paleontological events: stratigraphic, ecological, and evolutionary implications. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Baird, G. C. and Brett, C. E. 1983. Regional variation and paleontology of two coral beds in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of western New York. Journal of Paleontology 57: 417–446.Google Scholar
Bambach, R. K., Knoll, A. H., and Wang, S. C. 2004. Origination, extinction, and mass depletions of marine diversity. Paleobiology 30: 522–542.10.1666/0094-8373(2004)030<0522:OEAMDO>2.0.CO;22.0.CO;2>Google Scholar
Berner, R. A. 2002. Examination of hypotheses for the Permo-Triassic boundary extinction by carbon cycle modeling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99: 4172–4177.10.1073/pnas.032095199Google Scholar
Berner, R. A. 2004. The Phanerozoic carbon cycle: CO2 and O2. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Blakey, R. C. 1974. Stratigraphic and depositional analysis of the Moenkopi Formation, southeastern Utah. Utah Geological and Mineral Survey Bulletin 104: 1–81.Google Scholar
Bottjer, D. J. and Jablonski, D. J. 1988. Paleoenvironmental patterns in the evolution of post-Paleozoic benthic marine invertebrates. Palaios 3: 540–560.Google Scholar
Boyer, D. L., Bottjer, D. J., and Droser, M. L. 2004. Ecological signature of Lower Triassic shell beds of the western United States. Palaios 19: 372–380.Google Scholar
Bruno, J. F., Stachowicz, J. J., and Bertness, M. D. 2003. Inclusion of facilitation into ecological theory. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 119–125.Google Scholar
Ciriacks, K. W. 1963. Permian and Eotriassic bivalves of the Middle Rockies. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 125: 1–100.Google Scholar
Clapham, M. E., Bottjer, D. J., Powers, C. M., Bonuso, N., Fraiser, M. L., Marenco, P. J., Dornbos, S. Q., and Pruss, S. B. 2006. Assessing Phanerozoic marine invertebrate ecological dominance. Palaios 21: 431–441.Google Scholar
Copper, P. 2001. Originations and extinctions in brachiopods. In Carlson, S. J. and Sandy, M. R., eds. Brachiopods ancient and modern: a tribute to G. Arthur Cooper. Paleontological Society Papers 7: 249–261. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Dietl, G. P. and Vermeij, G. J. 2006. Comment on “Statistical independence of escalatory ecological trends in Phanerozoic marine invertebrates.”. Science 312: 925e.Google Scholar
Droser, M. L., Bottjer, D. J., Sheehan, P. M., and McGhee, G. Jr. 2000. Decoupling of taxonomic and ecologic severity of Phanerozoic marine mass extinctions. Geology 28: 675–678.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 2001. Lessons from the past: biotic recoveries from mass extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98: 5399–5403.Google Scholar
Flügel, E. 1994. Pangean shelf carbonates: controls and paleoclimatic signature of Permian and Triassic reefs. In Klein, G. D., ed. Pangea: paleoclimate, tectonics, and sedimentation during accretion, zenith, and breakup of a supercontinent. Geological Society of America Special Paper 288: 247–266.Google Scholar
Flügel, E. and Stanley, G. D. 1984. Reorganization, development and evolution of post Permian reefs and reef organisms. Palaeontographica Americana 54: 177–186.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 2003. Origination and extinction through the Phanerozoic: a new approach. Journal of Geology 111: 125–148.Google Scholar
Fraiser, M. L. and Bottjer, D. J. 2005a. Fossil preservation during the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction: Taphonomic processes and palaeoecological signals. In Over, D. J., Morrow, J., and Wignall, P. B., eds. Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic biotic and climatic events: towards an integrated approach. Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy 20: 299–311.Google Scholar
Fraiser, M. L. and Bottjer, D. J. 2005b. Elevated CO2 and the delayed biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 37: 526.Google Scholar
Fraiser, M. L. and Bottjer, D. J. 2007. Elevated atmospheric CO2 as a top-down, press disturbance for the prolonged Permian-Triassic biotic crisis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (in press).Google Scholar
Fraser, N. M., Bottjer, D. J., and Fischer, A. G. 2004. Dissecting “Lithiotis” bivalves: implications for the Early Jurassic reef eclipse. Palaios 19: 51–67.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. and Calloway, C. B. 1980. Clams and brachiopods— ships that pass in the night. Paleobiology 6: 383–396.Google Scholar
Grice, K., Cao, C., Love, G. D., Böttcher, M. E., Twitchett, R. J., Grosjean, E., Summons, R. E., Turgeon, S. E., Dunning, W., and Jin, Y. 2005. Photic zone euxinia during the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event. Science 307: 706–709.Google Scholar
Hallam, A. 1991. Why was there a delayed radiation after the end-Paleozoic extinctions? Pp. 257–262in Brasier, M., ed. Innovations and revolution in the biosphere, Vol. 5. Harwood Academic, London.Google Scholar
Hallam, A. and Wignall, P. B. 1997. Mass extinctions and their aftermath. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harper, E. M. 2003. The Mesozoic Marine Revolution. pp. 433–455in Kelley, P., Kowalewski, M., and Hansen, T., eds. Predator-prey interactions in the fossil record. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Huey, R. B. and Ward, P. D. 2005. Hypoxia, global warming, and terrestrial late Permian extinctions. Science 308: 398–401.Google Scholar
Isozaki, Y. 1997. Permo-Triassic boundary superanoxia and stratified superocean: records from lost deep sea. Science 276: 235–238.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D. 2001. Lessons from the past: evolutionary impacts of mass extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98: 5393–5398.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. 1991. The stratigraphy of shell concentrations. pp. 211–290in Allison, P. A. and Briggs, D. E. G., eds. Taphonomy: releasing the data locked in the fossil record. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. 2001. Preservation of species abundance in marine death assemblages. Science 294: 1091–1094.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. 2002. Time-averaged molluscan death assemblages: palimpsests of richness, snapshots of abundance. Geology 30: 803–806.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. and Brenchley, P. J. 1994. Patterns in bioclastic accumulation through the Phanerozoic: changes in input or in destruction? Geology 22: 1139–1143.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. and Brenchley, P. J. 1996. Evolution of the fossil record: thickness trends in marine skeletal accumulations and their implications. pp. 290–336in Jablonski, D., Erwin, D. H., and Lipps, J., eds. Evolutionary paleobiology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kimura, T., Hayami, I., and Yoshida, S. 1991. Geology of Japan. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Knoll, A. H., Bambach, R. K., Canfield, D. E., and Grotzinger, J. P. 1996. Comparative earth history and Late Permian mass extinction. Science 273: 452–457.Google Scholar
Krystyn, L., Richoz, S., Baud, A., and Twitchett, R. J. 2003. A unique Permian-Triassic boundary section from the Neotethyan Hawasina Basin, central Oman Mountains. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 191: 329–344.Google Scholar
Kummel, B. 1954. Triassic stratigraphy of southeastern Idaho and adjacent areas. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 254-H.Google Scholar
Kump, L. R., Pavlov, A., and Arthur, M. A. 2005. Massive release of hydrogen sulfide to the surface ocean and atmosphere during intervals of oceanic anoxia. Geology 33: 397–400.Google Scholar
Larson, A. R. 1966. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Moenkopi Formation of southern Nevada. Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Law, R. H. and Thayer, C. W. 1991. Articulate fecundity in the Phanerozoic: steady state or what? Pp. 183–190in Mackinnon, D. I., Lee, D. E., and Campbell, J. D., eds. Brachiopods through time. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Lehrmann, D. J., Ramezani, J., Bowring, S. A., Martin, M. W., Montgomery, P., Enos, P., Payne, J. L., Orchard, M. J., Hongmei, W., and Jiayong, W. 2006. Timing of recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction: geochronologic and biostratigraphic constraints from south China. Geology 34: 1053–1956.Google Scholar
Li, X. and Droser, M. L. 1999. Lower and Middle Ordovician shell beds from the Basin and Range province of the western United States (California, Nevada, and Utah). Palaios 14: 215–233.Google Scholar
Lu, P. J., Yogo, M., and Marshall, C. R. 2006. Phanerozoic marine biodiversity dynamics in light of the incompleteness of the fossil record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103: 2736–2739.Google Scholar
Madin, J. S., Alroy, J., Aberhan, M., Fürsich, F. T., Kiessling, W., Kosnik, M. A., and Wagner, P. 2006. Statistical independence of escalatory ecological trends in Phanerozoic marine invertebrates. Science 312: 897–900.Google Scholar
Marenco, P. J., Corsetti, F. A., Bottjer, D. J., Baud, A., and Kaufman, A. J. 2005. Sulfur isotope anomalies and the end-Permian mass extinction. PaleoBios 25: (Suppl. to No. 2). 80.Google Scholar
McKinney, F. K., Lidgard, S., Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., and Taylor, P. D. 1998. Decoupled temporal patterns of evolution and ecology in two post-Paleozoic clades. Science 281: 807–809.Google Scholar
McRoberts, C. A. 2001. Triassic bivalves and the initial marine Mesozoic Revolution: a role for predators? Geology 4: 359–362.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1988. Spatio-temporal transitions in Paleozoic Bivalvia: an analysis of North American fossil assemblages. Historical Biology 1: 251–273.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1989. Spatio-temporal transitions in Paleozoic Bivalvia: a field comparison of Upper Ordovician and Upper Paleozoic bivalve-dominated fossil assemblages. Historical Biology 2: 227–260.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1988. Modeling bivalve diversification: the effect of interaction on a macroevolutionary system. Paleobiology 14: 364–369.Google Scholar
Mundil, R., Ludwig, K. R., Metcalfe, I., and Renne, P. R. 2004. Age and timing of the Permian mass extinctions: U/Pb dating of closed-system zircons. Science 305: 1760–1763.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D. and Boyd, D. W. 1995. Pectinoid bivalves of the Permian-Triassic crisis. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 227.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D. and Kummel, B. 1942. Lower Eo-Triassic stratigraphy, western Wyoming and southeast Idaho. Geological Society of America Bulletin 53: 937–995.Google Scholar
Newman, D. H. 1974. Paleoenvironments of the Lower Triassic Thaynes Formation near Cascade Springs, Wasatch County, Utah. Brigham Young University Geology Studies 21: 63–96.Google Scholar
Novack-Gottshall, P. M. and Miller, A. I. 2003. Comparative taxonomic richness and abundance of Late Ordovician gastropods and bivalves in mollusc-rich strata of the Cincinnati Arch. Palaios 18: 559–571.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E. and Holland, S. M. 1999. Biofacies replacement in a sequence stratigraphic framework: Middle and Upper Ordovician of the Nashville Dome, Tennessee, USA. Palaios 14: 301–323.Google Scholar
Paull, R. A., Paull, R. K., and Kraemer, B. R. 1989. Depositional history of Lower Triassic rocks in southwestern Montana and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Idaho. pp. 69–90in French, D. E. and Gabb, R. F., eds. Montana Geological Society Field Conference Guidebook, Montana Centennial Edition.Google Scholar
Peters, S. E. 2004. Relative abundance of Sepkoski's evolutionary faunas in Cambrian-Ordovician deep subtidal environments in North America. Paleobiology 30: 543–560.Google Scholar
Power, M. E., Tilman, D., Estes, J. A., Menge, B. A., Bond, W. J., Mills, L. S., Daily, G., Castilla, J. C., Lubchenco, J., and Paine, R. T. 1996. Challenges in the quest for keystones. BioScience 46: 609–620.Google Scholar
Pruss, S. B. and Bottjer, D. J. 2004. Late Early Triassic microbial reefs of the western United States: a description and model for their deposition in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 211: 127–137.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1982. Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record. Science 215: 1501–1503.Google Scholar
Rhodes, M. C. and Thompson, R. J. 1993. Comparative physiology of suspension-feeding in living brachiopods and bivalves: evolutionary implications. Paleobiology 19: 322–334.Google Scholar
Rodland, D. L. and Bottjer, D. J. 2001. Biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction: behavior of the inarticulate brachiopod Lingula as a disaster taxon. Palaios 16: 95–101.Google Scholar
Rudwick, M. J S. 1970. Living and fossil brachiopods. Hutchinson University Library, London.Google Scholar
Sandy, M. R. 1995. Early Mesozoic (Late Triassic-early Jurassic) Tethyan brachiopod biofacies: possible evolutionary intra-niche replacement within the Brachiopoda. Paleobiology 21: 479–495.Google Scholar
Sano, H. and Nakashima, K. 1997. Lowermost Triassic (Griesbachian) microbial bindstone-cementstone facies, southwest Japan. Facies 36: 1–24.Google Scholar
Schubert, J. K. and Bottjer, D. J. 1995. Aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event: Paleoecology of Lower Triassic carbonates in the western U. S. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 116: 1–39.Google Scholar
Scotese, C. R. 1994. Early Triassic paleogeographic map. In Klein, G. D., ed. Pangea: paleoclimate, tectonics and sedimentation during accretion, zenith and breakup of a supercontinent. Geological Society of America Special Paper 288: 7.Google Scholar
Seibel, B. A. and Fabry, V. J. 2003. Marine biotic response to elevated carbon dioxide. In Hannah, L. and Lovejoy, T. E., eds. Climate change and biodiversity: synergistic impacts. Advances in Applied Biodiversity Science 4: 59–67. Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1981. A factor analytic description of the Phanerozoic marine fossil record. Paleobiology 7: 36–53.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1984. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity. III. Post-Paleozoic families and mass extinctions. Paleobiology 10: 246–267.Google Scholar
Simões, M. G., Kowalewski, M., Torello, F. F., Ghilardi, R. P., and Mello, L. H C. 2000. Early onset of Modern-style shell beds in the Permian sequences of the Paraná Basin: implications for the Phanerozoic trend in bioclastic accumulations. Revista Brasileira de Geociências 30: 485–499.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1968. Post-Paleozoic adaptive radiation of infaunal bivalve mollusks: a consequence of mantle fusion and siphon formation. Journal of Paleontology 42: 214–229.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1972. Functional morphology and evolution of byssally attached bivalve mollusks. Journal of Paleontology 46: 165–212.Google Scholar
Steele-Petrovic, H. M. 1979. The physiological differences between articulate brachiopods and filter-feeding bivalves as a factor in the evolution of marine level-bottom communities. Paleontology 22: 101–134.Google Scholar
Tchoumatchenco, P. 1972. Thanatocoenoses and biotopes of Lower Jurassic brachiopods in central and western Bulgaria. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 12: 227–242.Google Scholar
Thayer, C. W. 1986. Are brachiopods better than bivalves? Mechanisms of turbidity tolerance and their interaction with feeding in articulates. Paleobiology 12: 161–174.Google Scholar
Twitchett, R. J. and Wignall, P. B. 1996. Trace fossils and the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction: evidence from northern Italy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 124: 137–151.Google Scholar
Twitchett, R. J., Looy, C. V., Morante, R., Visscher, H., and Wignall, P. B. 2001. Rapid and synchronous collapse of marine and terrestrial ecosystems during the end-Permian mass extinction event. Geology 29: 351–354.Google Scholar
Twitchett, R. J., Krystyn, L., Baud, A., Wheeley, J. R., and Richoz, S. 2004. Rapid marine recovery after the end-Permian mass-extinction event in the absence of marine anoxia:. Geology 32: 805–808.Google Scholar
Twitchett, R. J., Feinberg, J. M., O'Connor, D. D., and Alvarez, W. 2005. Early Triassic ophiuroids: their paleoecology, taphonomy, and distribution. Palaios 20: 213–223.Google Scholar
Underwood, A. J. 1989. The analysis of stress in natural populations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 37: 51–78.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. and Jablonski, D. 1986. Mass extinctions: sensitivity of marine larval types:. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 83: 6912–6914.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1997. The Mesozoic marine revolution: evidence from snails, predators, and grazers. Paleobiology 3: 245–258.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. and Herbert, G. S. 2004. Measuring relative abundance in fossil and living assemblages. Paleobiology 30: 1–4.Google Scholar
Wignall, P. B. 2001. Large igneous provinces and mass extinctions. Earth-Science Reviews 53.1–33.Google Scholar
Wignall, P. B. and Hallam, A. 1992. Anoxia as a cause of the Permian/Triassic mass extinction: facies evidence from northern Italy and the western United States. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 93: 21–46.Google Scholar
Wignall, P. B. and Twitchett, R. J. 1996. Oceanic anoxia and the end Permian mass extinction. Science 272: 1155–1158.Google Scholar
Wignall, P. B. and Twitchett, R. J. 2002. Extent, duration, and nature of the Permian-Triassic superanoxic event. In Koeberl, C. and MacLeod, K. C., eds. Catastrophic events and mass extinctions: impacts and beyond. Geological Society of America Special Paper 356: 395–413.Google Scholar
Woods, A. D., Bottjer, D. J., Mutti, M., and Morrison, J. 1999. Lower Triassic large seafloor carbonate cements: their origin and a mechanism for the prolonged biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction. Geology 27: 645–648.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Fraiser and Bottjer supplementary material

Appendices

Download Fraiser and Bottjer supplementary material(File)
File 28.9 KB