The case for sea-level change as a dominant causal factor in mass extinction of marine invertebrates
- 6 November 1989
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
- Vol. 325 (1228) , 437-455
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1989.0098
Abstract
A correlation between global marine regressions and mass extinctions has been recognized since the last century and received explicit formulation, in a model involving habitat-area restriction, by Newell in the 1960s. Since that time attempts to apply the species-area relation to the subject have proved somewhat controversial and promoters of other extinction models have called the generality of the regression-extinction relation into question. Here, a strong relation is shown to exist between times of global or regional sea-level change inferred from stratigraphic analysis, and times of high turnover of Phanerozoic marine invertebrates, involving both extinction and radiation; this is valid on a small and large scale. In many cases the most significant factor promoting extinction was apparently not regression but spreads of anoxic bottom water associated with the subsequent transgression. The sea-level-extinction relation cannot be properly understood without an adequate ecological model, and an attempt is made to formulate one in outline.Keywords
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