Anatomical and ecological constraints on Phanerozoic animal diversity in the marine realm.
We grouped the fossil records of marine animal genera into suites defined by function and physiology. The stratigraphic coherence of the resulting diversity history indicates the importance of ecological structure in constraining taxonomic richness through time. The proportional representation of major functional groups was stably maintained for intervals as long as 200 million years, despite evolutionary turnover and changes in total diversity. Early Paleozoic radiations established stable ecosystem relationships, and thereafter only the great era-bounding mass extinctions were able to break patterns of incumbency, permitting the emergence of new community structures with distinct proportional diversity relationships.
Bambach
Richard K
RK
Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. rbambach@oeb.harvard.edu
Knoll
Andrew H
AH
Sepkoski
J John
JJ
D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D008386:Marine Biology; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010163:Paleontology