Increases in reef size, habitat and metacommunity complexity associated with Cambrian radiation oxygenation pulses.

ABSTRACT: Oxygenation during the Cambrian Radiation progressed via a series of short-lived pulses. However, the metazoan biotic response to this episodic oxygenation has not been quantified, nor have the causal evolutionary processes been constrained. Here we present ecological analyses of Cambrian archaeocyath sponge reef communities on the Siberian Platform (525-514 Ma). During the oxic pulse at ~521-519 Ma, we quantify reef habitat expansion coupled to an increase in reef size and metacommunity complexity, from individual within-community reactions to their local environment, to ecologically complex synchronous community-wide response, accompanied by an increase in rates of origination. Subsequently, reef and archaeocyath body size are reduced in association with increased rates of extinction due

SUBMITTER: Zhuravlev AY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9727068 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature