Book contents
- Biological Extinction: New Perspectives
- Biological Extinction: New Perspectives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Prologue
- 1 Extinction in Deep Time
- 2 Biodiversity and Global Change
- 3 The State of the World’s Biodiversity
- 4 Extinction Threats to Life in the Ocean and Opportunities for Their Amelioration
- 5 Out of the Soil
- 6 The Green Revolution and Crop Biodiversity
- 7 Population
- 8 Game Over?
- 9 Why We’re in the Sixth Great Extinction and What It Means to Humanity
- 10 The Consequences of Biodiversity Loss for Human Well-Being
- 11 Terra Incognita
- 12 How Do We Stem Biodiversity Loss?
- 13 Can Smart Villages Help to Stem Biodiversity Loss?
- 14 The New Design Condition
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
1 - Extinction in Deep Time
Lessons from the Past?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 August 2019
By
Book contents
- Biological Extinction: New Perspectives
- Biological Extinction: New Perspectives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Prologue
- 1 Extinction in Deep Time
- 2 Biodiversity and Global Change
- 3 The State of the World’s Biodiversity
- 4 Extinction Threats to Life in the Ocean and Opportunities for Their Amelioration
- 5 Out of the Soil
- 6 The Green Revolution and Crop Biodiversity
- 7 Population
- 8 Game Over?
- 9 Why We’re in the Sixth Great Extinction and What It Means to Humanity
- 10 The Consequences of Biodiversity Loss for Human Well-Being
- 11 Terra Incognita
- 12 How Do We Stem Biodiversity Loss?
- 13 Can Smart Villages Help to Stem Biodiversity Loss?
- 14 The New Design Condition
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
Summary
The rocks of the world contain a record of more than 3.5 billion years of change to the living world. As new evidence of past life emerges, increasing rigour is brought to the data that tell of species abundance, distribution and relationships through time. In addition, refinements of the stratigraphic record and new insights into past environments illuminate the physical factors that affect the structure and function of ancient ecosystems, particularly how they respond to climate change over time. For these reasons, palaeontological and geological data can be brought to bear on issues central to understanding biodiversity – the rates and patterns of species loss, mechanisms that drive diversity change and features that make some species and times susceptible to extinction. Moreover, the rock and fossil record can inform an understanding of ecosystem recovery after extinctions, revealing how diversity can rebuild after major catastrophes. While ancient fossil records can reveal the physical and biotic factors that underlie extinction, more recent ones are particularly informative. In the right settings, high-resolution recent fossil records can reveal how ecological communities looked and functioned before our own species’ arrival.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Biological ExtinctionNew Perspectives, pp. 22 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
References
Barnosky, A. D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G. O., Swartz, B., Quental, T. B., Marshall, C., McGuire, J. L., Lindsey, E. L., Maguire, K. C., Mersey, B. & Ferrer, E. A. 2011. Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature, 471: 51–57.Google Scholar
Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P. R., Barnosky, A. D., García, A., Pringle, R. M. & Palmer, T. M. 2015. Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction. Science Advances, 1(5): E1400253.Google Scholar
Dietl, G. & Flessa, K. 2011. Conservation paleobiology: Putting the dead to work. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 26(1): 30–37.Google Scholar
Dietl, G. & Flessa, K. 2018. Conservation Paleobiology. Chicago: University Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Edie, S. M., Jablonski, D. & Valentine, J. W. 2018. Contrasting responses of functional diversity to major losses in taxonomic diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(4): 732–737.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 2001. Lessons from the past: Biotic recoveries from mass extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(10): 5399–5403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erwin, D. H., Bowring, S. A. & Yugan, J. 2002. End-Permian mass extinctions: A review. Geological Society of American Special Paper, 356: 363–383.Google Scholar
Fraiser, M. L. & Bottjer, D. J. 2007. Elevated atmospheric CO2 and the delayed biotic recovery from the End-Permian extinction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, 252: 164–75.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D. 1986. Background and mass extinctions: The alternation of macroevolutionary regimes. Science, 231(4734): 129–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jablonski, D. 2004. The evolutionary role of mass extinctions: Disaster, recovery and something in between. In Taylor, P. D. (Ed.), Extinctions in the History of Life: 151–177. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D. 2005. Mass extinctions and macroevolution. Paleobiology, 31(2): 192–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jablonski, D. 2008. Extinction and the spatial dynamics of biodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(Suppl. 1): 11528–11535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kidwell, S. M. 2015. Biology in the Anthropocene: Challenges and insights from young fossil records. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(16): 4922–4929.Google Scholar
Lockwood, R. 2003. Abundance not linked to survival across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: Patterns in North American bivalves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100: 2478–2482.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D. 1967. Revolutions in the history of life. In Albritton, C. C. Jr (Ed.), Uniformity and Simplicity: A Symposium on the Principle of the Uniformity of Nature: 63–91. Boulder CO: Geology Society of America.Google Scholar
Payne, J. L. & Clapham, M. E. 2012. End-Permian mass extinction in the oceans: An ancient analog for the twenty-first century? Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 40: 89–111.Google Scholar
Payne, J. L. & Finnegan, S. 2007. The effect of geographic range on extinction risk during background and mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(25), 10506–10511.Google Scholar
Raup, D. & Sepkoski, J. 1982. Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record. Science, 215:1501–1503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Renne, P. R., Deino, A. L., Hilgen, F. J., Kuiper, K. F., Mark, D. F., Mitchell, W. S., III, Morgan, L. E., Mundil, R. & Smit, J. 2013. Time scales of critical events around the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Science, 339: 684.Google Scholar
Rudwick, M. 1997. Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones and Geological Catastrophes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rudwick, M. 2008. Worlds before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. 1982a. A compendium of fossil marine families. Contributions in Biology and Geology: Milwaukee Public Museum, 51: 1–125.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. 1982b. Mass extinctions in the Phanerozoic oceans: A review. Geological Society of America Special Paper, 190: 283–289.Google Scholar
Smith, A. & Jeffery, C. 1998. Selectivity of extinction among sea urchins at the end of the Cretaceous period. Nature, 392: 69–71.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1969. Patterns of taxonomic and ecological structure of the shelf benthos during Phanerozoic time. Paleontology, 12: 684–709.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. & Jablonski, D. 1986. Mass extinctions: Sensitivity of marine larval types. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 83: 6912–6914.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L. 2004. Mass extinctions in plant evolution. In Taylor, P. D. (Ed.), Extinctions in the History of Life: 61–97. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by