Original story at SBS
Lowly bottom-feeders survived the biggest mass extinction in history, according to a study by scientists at the University of Plymouth.
Hippocardia cunea: Rostroconchs are the only class of mollusks in the fossil record that are extinct today. They lived from the Early Cambrian until Late Permian as marine filter feeders partially buried in sediment. Source: Falls of the Ohio State Park
Lowly bottom-feeders survived the biggest mass extinction in history to rescue life in the world’s oceans, a UK study has found.
Globally, the Late Permian extinction 252 million years ago wiped out 90 per cent of all marine species but creatures living on the sea floor fared better with almost 40 per cent surviving.
Scientists at the University of Plymouth made the discovery after compiling a database of 22,263 individual fossil marine invertebrates belonging to 1770 families of organisms.
The researchers worked out how each species moved, fed, and affected the ecosystem.
They learned that after the extinction, driven by volcanic eruptions and climate change, 38 per cent of benthic – or sea floor – life survived.
“Crucially, not one of the key ecological groups of animals that lived on or within the sea floor, and which keep ecosystems functioning, were completely eliminated,” said lead scientist Professor Richard Twitchett.
Colleague William Foster said: “The fact that none of the key benthic ecological groups were completely eliminated globally during the biggest known extinction recorded in the fossil record was unexpected and demonstrates a certain level of resilience that had not been appreciated before.”
The findings reported in the journal Nature Geoscience may help scientists better understand the fate of life in the oceans as a result of climate change today.
“We might predict that the present changes will not cause complete elimination of these key functional groups, unless future extinctions turn out to be more severe than that experienced 252 million years ago,” said Mr Foster.
“However, our results also clearly show that some ecosystems do completely collapse, especially tropical ecosystems, in particular reefs.”
Prof Twitchett said: “In this case, the global oceans in the extinction aftermath were a bit like a ship manned by a skeleton crew: all stations were operational but manned by relatively few species.”
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