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First glimpse into Lower Jurassic deep-sea biodiversity: in situ diversification and resilience against extinction
Thuy, B.; Kiel, S.; Dulai, A.; Gale, A.S.; Kroh, A.; Lord, A.R.; Numberger-Thuy, L.D.; Stöhr, S.; Wisshak, M. (2014). First glimpse into Lower Jurassic deep-sea biodiversity: in situ diversification and resilience against extinction. Proc. - Royal Soc., Biol. Sci. 281(1786): 6 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2624
In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. The Royal Society: London. ISSN 0962-8452; e-ISSN 1471-2954, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keyword
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    evolution of deep-sea biota, onshore-offshore patterns, in situ diversification, resilience against extinction

Authors  Top 
  • Thuy, B.
  • Kiel, S.
  • Dulai, A.
  • Gale, A.S.
  • Kroh, A., more
  • Lord, A.R.
  • Numberger-Thuy, L.D.
  • Stöhr, S., more
  • Wisshak, M.

Abstract
    Owing to the assumed lack of deep-sea macrofossils older than the Late Cretaceous, very little is known about the geological history of deep-sea communities, and most inference-based hypotheses argue for repeated recolonizations of the deep sea from shelf habitats following major palaeoceanographic perturbations. We present a fossil deep-sea assemblage of echinoderms, gastropods, brachiopods and ostracods, from the Early Jurassic of the Glasenbach Gorge, Austria, which includes the oldest known representatives of a number of extant deep-sea groups, and thus implies that in situ diversification, in contrast to immigration from shelf habitats, played a much greater role in shaping modern deep-sea biodiversity than previously thought. A comparison with coeval shelf assemblages reveals that, at least in some of the analysed groups, significantly more extant families/superfamilies have endured in the deep sea since the Early Jurassic than in the shelf seas, which suggests that deep-sea biota are more resilient against extinction than shallow-water ones. In addition, a number of extant deep-sea families/superfamilies found in the Glasenbach assemblage lack post-Jurassic shelf occurrences, implying that if there was a complete extinction of the deep-sea fauna followed by replacement from the shelf, it must have happened before the Late Jurassic.

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