Environmental drivers of crocodyliform extinction across the Jurassic/Cretaceous transition.

ABSTRACT: Crocodyliforms have a much richer evolutionary history than represented by their extant descendants, including several independent marine and terrestrial radiations during the Mesozoic. However, heterogeneous sampling of their fossil record has obscured their macroevolutionary dynamics, and obfuscated attempts to reconcile external drivers of these patterns. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of crocodyliform biodiversity through the Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) transition using subsampling and phylogenetic approaches and apply maximum-likelihood methods to fit models of extrinsic variables to assess what mediated these patterns. A combination of fluctuations in sea-level and episodic perturbations to the carbon and sulfur cycles was primarily responsible for both a marine and non-mari

SUBMITTER: Tennant JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4810856 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature