Rebuilding biodiversity of Patagonian marine molluscs after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

ABSTRACT: We analysed field-collected quantitative data of benthic marine molluscs across the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary in Patagonia to identify patterns and processes of biodiversity reconstruction after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. We contrast diversity dynamics from nearshore environments with those from offshore environments. In both settings, Early Palaeogene (Danian) assemblages are strongly dominated by surviving lineages, many of which changed their relative abundance from being rare before the extinction event to becoming the new dominant forms. Only a few of the species in the Danian assemblages were newly evolved. In offshore environments, however, two newly evolved Danian bivalve species attained ecological dominance by replacing two ecologically equivalent species that disap

SUBMITTER: Aberhan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4100926 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature