Phanerozoic survivors: Actinopterygian evolution through the Permo-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction events.

ABSTRACT: Actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes) successfully passed through four of the big five mass extinction events of the Phanerozoic, but the effects of these crises on the group are poorly understood. Many researchers have assumed that the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME) and end-Triassic extinction (ETE) had little impact on actinopterygians, despite devastating many other groups. Here, two morphometric techniques, geometric (body shape) and functional (jaw morphology), are used to assess the effects of these two extinction events on the group. The PTME elicits no significant shifts in functional disparity while body shape disparity increases. An expansion of body shape and functional disparity coincides with the neopterygian radiation and evolution of novel feeding adaptations in the Mi

SUBMITTER: Smithwick FM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5817399 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature