Accelerated mass extinction in an isolated biota during Late Devonian climate changes.

ABSTRACT: The fossil record can illuminate factors that contribute to extinction risk during times of global environmental disturbance; for example, inferred thermal tolerance was an important predictor of extinction during several mass extinctions that corresponded with climate change. Additionally, members of geographically isolated biotas may face higher risk because they have less opportunity to migrate to suitable climate refugia during environmental disturbances. Here, we investigate how different types of risk intersect in the well-preserved brachiopod fauna of the Appalachian Foreland Basin during the two pulses of the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction (Late Devonian, ~ 372 Ma). The selectivity of extinction is consistent with climate change (cooling) as a primary kill mechanism in this fau

SUBMITTER: Pier JQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8692332 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature