Mechanisms and drivers of belemnite body-size dynamics across the Pliensbachian-Toarcian crisis.

ABSTRACT: Body-size reduction is considered an important response to current climate warming and has been observed during past biotic crises, including the Pliensbachian-Toarcian crisis, a second-order mass extinction. However, in fossil cephalopod studies, the mechanisms and their potential link with climate are rarely investigated and palaeobiological scales of organization are not usually differentiated. Here, we hypothesize that belemnites reduce their adult size across the Pliensbachian-Toarcian boundary warming event. Belemnite body-size dynamics across the Pliensbachian-Toarcian boundary in the Peniche section (Lusitanian Basin, Portugal) were analysed based on the newly collected field data. We disentangle the mechanisms and the environmental drivers of the size fluctuations observed from th

SUBMITTER: Rita P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936285 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature