A transition from Court Jester to Red Queen in the ecological success of Phanerozoic marine calcifiers

Eichenseer K, Balthasar U, Smart CW, Stander J, Kießling W (2018)

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Abstract of lecture

Publication year: 2018

Conference Proceedings Title: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts

URI: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2018/EGU2018-891.pdf?EGUsphere

Abstract

The vast Phanerozoic fossil record of marine calcifiers allows for quantitative assessment of environmental influences on past life. Calcifying organisms build their shells from calcite and/or aragonite, and the metabolic cost of shell secretion is influenced by the interplay of mineralogy and environment. Mg:Ca ratio and temperature control whether abiotic calcium carbonate is precipitated as calcite or aragonite, and variations in those conditions are likely to have affected calcifying organisms throughout Earth history. Here, we combine a model of seawater Mg:Ca ratio with δ18O temperature reconstructions to quantify calcite-aragonite sea conditions from the Ordovician - Pleistocene. We correlate calcite-aragonite sea conditions with the ecological success of aragonitic taxa at stage resolution, calculated as Summed Common species Occurrence Rate (SCOR) based on genus-level occurrences from the Paleobiology Database. Calcite-aragonite sea conditions significantly co-vary with the ecological success of aragonitic taxa in the Palaeozoic, but correlation ceases in the Mesozoic. We attribute this to the escalation of marine life through time: The end-Permian mass extinction and subsequently the Mesozoic Marine Revolution led to the prevalence of increasingly mobile, metabolically active, and predatory taxa. A Palaeozoic Court Jester world, in which environmental constraints shaped the success of marine calcifiers, gave way to the modern Red Queen world, where biotic interactions reign.

Authors with CRIS profile

Kilian Eichenseer Lehrstuhl für Paläoumwelt Wolfgang Kießling Lehrstuhl für Paläoumwelt

Involved external institutions

University of Plymouth GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Eichenseer, K., Balthasar, U., Smart, C.W., Stander, J., & Kießling, W. (2018). A transition from Court Jester to Red Queen in the ecological success of Phanerozoic marine calcifiers. Paper presentation.

MLA:

Eichenseer, Kilian, et al. "A transition from Court Jester to Red Queen in the ecological success of Phanerozoic marine calcifiers." Presented at EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts 2018.

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