Reefal regions were biodiversity hotspots throughout the Phanerozoic.

ABSTRACT: Reefs are important hotspots of marine biodiversity today and have acted as cradles of diversification in the geological past. However, we know little about how the diversity of reef-supporting regions varied through deep time, and how this differed from other regions. We quantified regional diversity patterns in reef-supporting and non-reef-supporting regions in the fossil record of Phanerozoic marine invertebrates. Diversity in reef-supporting regions is on average two- to threefold higher than in non-reef-supporting regions and has been remarkably stable over timescales of tens to hundreds of millions of years. This signal is present in both reefal and non-reefal facies within reef-supporting regions, suggesting that reefs enriched diversity in surrounding environments. Sepkoski's "Mode

SUBMITTER: Close RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12588287 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature