Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:25:15.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trophic group and the end-Cretaceous extinction: did deposit feeders have it made in the shade?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Jeffrey S. Levinton
Jeffrey S. Levinton*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245. email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has been suggested that a sudden event at the end of the Cretaceous period caused a major extinction that was felt disproportionately by creatures in the water column. It also has been argued that benthic deposit feeders, being relatively independent of abundance of organic particles in the water column, should have survived the crisis more readily than suspension feeders, which depended more upon feeding upon phytoplankton. I argue that the hypothesis of relative immunity of deposit feeders is insufficient, because deposit feeders by and large depend upon a supply of organic matter from the water column and would have succumbed to food shortage nearly as rapidly as suspension feeders, possibly within a maximum of three to six months. This near simultaneity of extinction would have been especially true of continental shelf environments. Even in some parts of the deep sea, it is likely that a dependence upon the water column above might have caused deep-sea deposit feeders to succumb rapidly. Therefore, deposit feeders would not necessarily have outsurvived suspension feeders during a crisis of depleted water-column phytoplankton, increased shading by inert particles, or poisoning of the water column and killing of phytoplankton. The relatively lower rate of extinction of nuculoid bivalves may relate instead to their presence in deeper-water refuge habitats, their apparent relative ability to diversify in higher latitudes, or their resistance to factors other than food shortage.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Winter 1996 , pp. 104 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Abbott, R. T. 1974. American seashells. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.Google Scholar
Alatalo, P., Berg, C. L. Jr., and d'Asaro, C. N. 1984. Reproduction and development in the lucinid clam Codakia orbicularis (Linne 1758). Bulletin of Marine Science 34:424–434.Google Scholar
Alldredge, A. A., and Gotschalk, C. C. 1989. Direct observation of the flocculation of diatom blooms: characteristics, settling velocities and formation of diatom aggregates. Deep-Sea Research 36:159–171.Google Scholar
Alldredge, A. L., and McGillivary, P. 1991. The attachment probabilities of marine snow and their implications for particle coagulation in the ocean. Deep-Sea Research 38(4A):431–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alongi, D. M., and Tenore, K. R. 1985. Effect of detritus supply on trophic relationships within experimental benthic food webs. I. Meiofauna-polychaete (Capitella capitata (Type I) Fabricius) interactions. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 88:153–166.Google Scholar
Alvarez, L. W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F., and Michel, H. V. 1980. Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. Science 208:1095–1108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alvarez, W., Alvarez, L. W., Asaro, F., and Michel, H. V. 1984. The end of the Cretaceous: Sharp boundary or gradual transition? Science 223:1183–1186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banse, K. 1992. Grazing, temporal changes of phytoplankton concentrations, and the microbial loop in the open sea. pp. 409–440In Falkowski, P. G. and Woodhead, A. D., eds. Primary productivity and biogeochemical cycles in the sea. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Bianchi, T. S., and Levinton, J. S. 1984. The importance of microalgae, bacteria, and particulate organic matter in the somatic growth of Hydrobia totteni. Journal of Marine Research 42:431–443.Google Scholar
Billet, D. S. M., Lampitt, R. S., Rice, A. L., and Mantoura, R. F. C. 1983. Seasonal sedimentation of phytoplankton to the deepsea benthos. Nature 302:520–522.Google Scholar
Blegvad, H. 1914. Food and conditions of nourishment among the communities of invertebrate animals on the sea bottom in Danish waters. Report of the Danish Biological Station 22:41–78.Google Scholar
Cammen, L. M. 1980. The significance of microbial carbon in the nutrition of the deposit feeding polychaete Nereis succinea. Marine Biology 61:9–20.Google Scholar
Cheng, I.-J., Levinton, J. S., McCartney, M. M., Martinez, D., and Weissburg, M. J. 1993. A bioassay approach to seasonal variation in the nutritional value of sediment. Marine Ecology Progress Series 94:275–285.Google Scholar
Christensen, H., and Kanneworf, E. 1986. Sedimentation of phytoplankton during a spring bloom in the Oresund. Ophelia 26:109–122.Google Scholar
Courtillot, V., Besse, J., Vandamme, D., Montigny, R., Jaeger, J. J., and Cappeta, H. 1986. Deccan flood basalts at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 80:361–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dauer, D. M. 1983. Functional morphology and feeding behavior of Scolelepis squamata (Polychaeta: Spionidae). Marine Biology 77:279–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayton, P. K., and Oliver, J. 1977. Antarctic soft-bottom benthos in oligotrophic and eutrophic environments. Science 197:55–58.Google Scholar
Drew, G. A. 1901. The life history of Nucula delphinodonta. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 44:313–392.Google Scholar
Duggins, D. O., Simenstad, C. A., and Estes, J. A. 1989. Magnification of secondary production by kelp detritus in coastal marine ecosystems. Science 245:170–173.Google Scholar
Elliot, D. H., Askin, R. A., Kyte, F. T., and Zinsmeister, W. J. 1994. Iridium and dinocysts at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary on Seymour Island, Antarctica: implications for the K–T event. Geology 22:675–678.Google Scholar
Elmgren, R. 1984. Trophic dynamics in the enclosed, brackish Baltic Sea. Rapport et Procès Verbaux des Réunions, Conseil International Pour L'Exploration de la Mer 183:152–169.Google Scholar
Findlay, S., and Tenore, K. R. 1982. Nitrogen source for a detritivore: detritus substrate vs. associated microbes. Science 218:371–373.Google Scholar
Goodey, A. G. 1988. A response by benthic foraminifera to the deposition of phytodetritus in the deep sea. Nature 332:70–73.Google Scholar
Gosner, K. L. 1971. Guide to identification of marine and estuarine invertebrates. Wiley-Interscience, New York.Google Scholar
Graf, G. 1989. Benthic-pelagic coupling in a deep-sea benthic community. Nature 341:437–439.Google Scholar
Gustafson, R. G., and Reid, R. G. B. 1986. Development of the pericalymma larva of S. reidi (Bivalvia: Cryptodonta: Solemyidae) as revealed by light microscopy. Marine Biology 93:411–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, A. 1990. Eustatic sea-level change and the K–T boundary. Geotimes 35:18–20.Google Scholar
Hallam, A., and Perch-Nielsen, K. 1990. The biotic record of events in the marine realm at the end of the Cretaceous: calcareous, siliceous and organic-walled microfossils and macroinvertebrates. Tectonophysics 171:347–357.Google Scholar
Hargrave, B. T. 1976. The central role of invertebrate feces in sediment decomposition. pp. 301–321In Anderson, J. M. and MacFadyen, A., eds. The role of terrestrial and aquatic organisms in decomposition processes. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hildebrand, A. R., Penfield, G. T., Kring, D. A., Pilkington, M., Camargo, Z. A., Jacobsen, S. B., and Boynton, W. V. 1991. Chicxulub Crater: a possible Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Geology 19:869–871.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. N. 1969. A study of feeding in Scrobicularia plana. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 49:805–823.Google Scholar
Hummel, H. 1985. Food intake of Macoma balthica (Mollusca) in relation to seasonal changes in its potential food on a tidal flat in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research 19:52–76.Google Scholar
Hylleberg, J., and Gallucci, V. F. 1975. Selectivity in feeding by the deposit-feeding bivalve Macoma nasuta. Marine Biology 33:167–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hylleberg, J., and Riis-Vestergaard, H. 1984. Marine environments: the fate of detritus. Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D. 1986. Background and mass extinctions: the alternation of macroevolutionary regimes. Science 231:129–133.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D., and Raup, D. M. 1995. Selectivity of end-Cretaceous marine bivalve extinctions. Science 268:389–391.Google Scholar
J⊘rgensen, B. B., and Revsbech, N. P. 1989. Oxygen uptake, bacterial distribution and carbon-nitrogen-sulfur cycling in sediments from the Baltic Sea-North Sea transition. Ophelia 31:29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
J⊘rgensen, C. B. 1966. Biology of suspension feeding. Pergamon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Judge, M. L., Coen, L. D., and Heck, J., 1993. Does Mercenaria mercenaria encounter elevated food levels in seagrass beds? Results from a novel technique to collect suspended food resources. Marine Ecology Progress Series 92:141–150.Google Scholar
Kamermans, P. 1994. Similarity in food source and timing of feeding in deposit- and suspension-feeding bivalves. Marine Ecology Progress Series 104:63–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, G. 1988. Extinction, survivorship and evolution of planktic forminifera across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary at El Kef, Tunisia. Marine Micropaleontology 13:239–263.Google Scholar
Keller, G., Barrera, E., Schmitz, B., and Mattson, E. 1993. Gradual mass extinction, species survivorship, and long-term environmental changes across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in high latitudes. Geological Society of America Bulletin 105.Google Scholar
Kofoed, L. H. 1975. The feeding biology of Hydrobia ventrosa Montagu. I. The assimilation of different components of the food. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 19:233–241.Google Scholar
Krogh, T. E., Kamo, S. L., Sharpton, V. L., Marin, L. E., and Hildebrand, A. R. 1993. U-Pb ages of single shocked zircons linking distal K–T ejecta to the Chicxulub crater. Nature 366:731–734.Google Scholar
Lampitt, R. S. 1985. Evidence for the seasonal deposition of detritus to the deep-sea floor and its subsequent resuspension. Deep-Sea Research 32:885–897.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1974. Trophic group and evolution in bivalve molluscs. Palaeontology 17:579–585.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1980. Particle feeding by deposit feeders: models, data, and a prospectus. pp. 423–429In Tenore, K. R. and Coull, B. C., eds. Marine Benthic Dynamics. University of South Carolina, Columbia.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1985. Complex interactions of a deposit feeder with its resources: roles of density, a competitor, and detrital addition in the growth and survival of the mudsnail Hydrobia totteni. Marine Ecology Progress Series 22:31–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1989. Deposit feeding and coastal oceanography. pp. 1–23In Lopez, G. R., Taghon, G. L., and Levinton, J. S., eds. Ecology of marine deposit feeders. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1991. Variable feeding behavior in three species of Macoma (Bivalvia: Tellinacea) as a response to water flow and sediment transport. Marine Biology 110:375–383.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S., and McCartney, M. 1991. The use of photosynthetic pigments in sediments as a tracer for sources and fates of macrophyte organic matter. Marine Ecology Progress Series 78:87–96.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S., and Stewart, S. 1988. Effects of sediment organics, detrital input, and temperature on demography, production, and body size of a deposit feeder. Marine Ecology Progress Series 49:259–266.Google Scholar
Lopez, G. R., and Cheng, I.-J. 1982. Ingestion selectivity of sedimentary organic matter by the deposit-feeder Nucula annulata (Bivalvia: Nuculanidae). Marine Ecology Progress Series 8:279–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, G. R., and Cheng, I.-J. 1983. Synoptic measurements of ingestion rate, ingestion selectivity, and absorption efficiency of natural foods in the deposit-feeding molluscs Nucula annulata (Bivalvia) and Hydrobia totteni (Gastropoda). Marine Ecology Progress Series 11:55–62.Google Scholar
Lopez, G. R., and Levinton, J. S. 1978. The availability of microorganisms attached to sediment particles as food for Hydrobia ventrosa Montagu (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Oecologia 32:263–275.Google Scholar
Lopez, G. R., and Levinton, J. S. 1987. Ecology of deposit-feeding animals in marine sediments. Quarterly Review of Biology 62:235–260.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, H. L., and Cullen, J. J. 1995. Fine-scale vertical resolution of chlorophyll and photosynthetic parameters in shallow-water benthos. Marine Ecology Progress Series 122:227–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, A. G., Grémare, A., and Tenore, K. 1989. Effect of food type and ration on growth of juvenile Capitella sp. 1 (Annelida: Polychaeta): macro- and micronutrients. Marine Biology 102:519–527.Google Scholar
Marsh, A. G., and Tenore, K. R. 1990. The role of nutrition in regulating the population dynamics of opportunistic, surface deposit feeders in a mesohaline community. Limnology and Oceanography 35:710–724.Google Scholar
McRoberts, C. A., and Newton, C. R. 1995. Selective extinction among end-Triassic European bivalves. Geology 23:102–104.Google Scholar
Milne, D. H., and McKay, C. P. 1982. Response of marine plankton communities to a global atmospheric darkening. pp. 297–303In Silver, L. T. and Schultz, P. H., eds. Geological implications of impacts of large asteroids and comets on the earth. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo.Google Scholar
Nakaoka, M. 1992. Spatial and seasonal variation in the population parameters of Yoldia notabilis Yokoyama (Bivalvia: Protobranchia) in Otsuchi Bay, northeastern Japan. II. Relationship between animal size and age-specific survivorship. Marine Ecology Progress Series 88:215–223.Google Scholar
Novitsky, J. A. 1990. Evidence for sedimenting particles as the origin of the microbial community in a coastal marine sediment. Marine Ecology Progress Series 60:161–167.Google Scholar
Officer, C. B., and Drake, C. L. 1983. The Cretaceous-Tertiary transition. Science 219:1383–1390.Google Scholar
Olafsson, E. B. 1986. Density dependence in suspension-feeding and deposit-feeding populations of the bivalve Macoma balthica: a field experiment. Journal of Animal Ecology 55:517–526.Google Scholar
Pace, M. L., Shimmel, S., and Darley, W. M. 1979. The effect of grazing by a gastropod, Nassarius obsoletus, on the benthic microbial community of a saltmarsh mud flat. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science 9:121–134.Google Scholar
Paul, C. R. C., and Mitchell, S. F. 1994. Is famine a common factor in marine mass extinctions? Geology 22:679–682.Google Scholar
Peinert, R., Savre, A., Stegman, P., Stienen, C., Haardt, H., and Smetacek, V. 1982. Dynamics of primary production and sedimentation in a coastal ecosystem. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research 16:276–289.Google Scholar
Perron, F. E. 1978. Seasonal burrowing behavior and ecology of Aporrhais occidentalis (Gastropoda: Strombacea). Biological Bulletin 154:463–471.Google Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J. 1918. The sea bottom and its production of fish food. A survey of the work done in connection with the valuation of the Danish waters from 1883-1997. Report of the Danish Biological Station 25:1–62.Google Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J., and Jensen, P. B. 1911. Valuation of the sea. I. Animal life of the sea bottom, its food and quantity. Report of the Danish Biological Station 20:2–77.Google Scholar
Pohlo, R. H. 1966. A note on the feeding behavior in Tagelus californianus (Bivalvia: Tellinacea). Veliger 8:225.Google Scholar
Pohlo, R. H. 1967. Aspects of the biology of Donax gouldii and a note on evolution in Tellinacea (Bivalvia). Veliger 9:330–337.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M., and Jablonski, D. 1993. Geography of end-Cretaceous marine bivalve extinctions. Science 260:971–973.Google Scholar
Rhoads, D. C. 1963. Rates of sediment reworking by Yoldia limatula in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and Long Island Sound. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 33:723–727.Google Scholar
Rhoads, D. C., and Young, D. K. 1970. The influence of deposit-feeding organisms on sediment stability and community trophic structure. Journal of Marine Research 28:150–178.Google Scholar
Rice, A. L., Billet, D. S. M., Fry, J., John, A. W. G., Lampitt, R. S., Mantoura, R. F. C., and Morris, R. J. 1986. Seasonal deposition of phytodetritus to the deep-sea floor. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 88B:265–279.Google Scholar
Rice, D. L. 1982. The detritus nitrogen problem: new observations and perspectives from organic geochemistry. Marine Ecology Progress Series 9:153–162.Google Scholar
Riebesell, U. 1992. The formation of large marine snow and its sustained residence in surface waters. Limnology and Oceanography 37:63–76.Google Scholar
Riemann, F. 1989. Gelatinous phytoplankton detritus aggregates on the Atlantic deep-sea bed. Structure and mode of formation. Marine Biology 100:533–539.Google Scholar
Roy, K. 1994. Effects of the Mesozoic marine revolution on the taxonomic, morphologic, and biogeographic evolution of a group: aporrhaid gastropods during the Mesozoic. Paleobiology 20:274–296.Google Scholar
Rublee, P. A. 1982. Seasonal distribution of bacteria in salt marsh sediments in North Carolina. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science 15:67–74.Google Scholar
Sastry, A. N. 1979. Pelecypoda (excluding Ostreidae). pp. 113–292In Giese, A. C. and Pearse, J. S., eds. Reproduction of marine invertebrates, Vol. 5. Molluscs: pelecypods and lesser classes. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schneider, D. C. 1978. Equalisation of prey numbers by migratory shorebirds. Nature 271:353–354.Google Scholar
Schweimanns, M., and Felbeck, H. 1985. Significance of the occurrence of chemoautotrophic bacterial endosymbionts in lucinid clams from Bermuda. Marine Ecology Progress Series 24:113–120.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M., and Hansen, T. A. 1986. Detritus feeding as a buffer to extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Geology 14:868–870.Google Scholar
Silver, L. T., and Schultz, P. H. 1982. Geological implications of impacts of large asteroids and comets on the Earth. Geological Society of America Special Paper 190:1–528. Boulder, Colo.Google Scholar
Surlyk, F., and Johansen, M. B. 1984. End-Cretaceous Brachiopod extinctions in the chalk of Denmark. Science 223:1174–1177.Google Scholar
Swisher, C. C., Grajales-Nishimura, J. M., Montanari, A., Margolis, S. V., Claeys, P., Alvarez, W., Renne, P. R., Cedillo, P. E., Maurrasse-Florentin, J. M. R., Curtis, G. H., Smit, J., and McWilliams, M. O. 1992. Coeval (40)Ar/(39)Ar ages of 65.0 million years ago from Chicxulub Crater melt rock and Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary tektites. Science 257:954–958.Google Scholar
Taghon, G. L., Nowell, A. R. M., and Jumars, P. A. 1980. Induction of suspension feeding in spionid polychaetes by high particulate fluxes. Science 210:562–564.Google Scholar
Tenore, K. R. 1977. Growth of Capitella capitata cultured on various levels of detritus derived from different sources. Limnology and Oceanography 22:936–941.Google Scholar
Tenore, K. R., and Hanson, R. B. 1980. Availability of detritus of different types and ages to a polychaete macroconsumer, Capitella capitata. Limnology and Oceanography 25:553–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, J. K., and Nichols, F. H. 1988. Food availability controls seasonal cycle of growth in Macoma balthica (L.) in San Francisco Bay, California. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 116:43–61.Google Scholar
Wiltse, W. I., Foreman, K. H., Teal, J. M., and Valiela, I. 1984. Effects of predators and food resources on the macrobenthos of salt marsh creeks. Journal of Marine Research 42:923–942.Google Scholar