Metabolic rates, climate and macroevolution: a case study using Neogene molluscs.

ABSTRACT: Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is posited to be a fundamental control on the structure and dynamics of ecological networks, influencing organism resource use and rates of senescence. Differences in the maintenance energy requirements of individual species therefore potentially predict extinction likelihood. If validated, this would comprise an important link between organismic ecology and macroevolutionary dynamics. To test this hypothesis, the BMRs of organisms within fossil species were determined using body size and temperature data, and considered in the light of species' survival and extinction through time. Our analysis focused on the high-resolution record of Pliocene to recent molluscs (bivalves and gastropods) from the Western Atlantic. Species-specific BMRs were calculated by measuri

SUBMITTER: Strotz LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125889 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature