Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:42:32.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Larval ecology, life history strategies, and patterns of extinction and survivorship among Ordovician trilobites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Brian D. E. Chatterton  and
Stephen E. Speyer
Brian D. E. Chatterton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
Stephen E. Speyer
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Differences in the larval ecology of Ordovician trilobites directly influenced the outcome of the Ashgill extinction (latest Ordovician) and indirectly governed the pattern of evolution in post-Ordovician trilobites. Larval ecology also affected survivorship patterns within the Ordovician, particularly between the Llandeilo and the Caradoc stages. All taxa with pelagic adults became extinct by the end of the Ordovician. Similarly, trilobites with entirely planktonic larvae had all but disappeared by the end of the Ordovician. Although suffering a significant loss in diversity, taxa with benthic larvae provided the ancestral stock for the majority of post-Ordovician lineages. Trilobites with a two-stage protaspid period (single planktonic followed by benthic larvae) suffered least during the Ashgill extinction, giving rise to approximately 23% of the new genera appearing in the early Silurian.

Patterns of extinction/survivorship among trilobite taxa with different developmental strategies indicate that the so-called Ashgill extinction was most likely the result of a composite phenomenon, including environmental perturbations, ecosystem breakdown and biogeographic restriction, and was not the consequence of a single catastrophic event (e.g., bolide collision). Indeed, our results are consistent with extinction models which invoke periodic global cooling and sea level regression associated with glaciation. Taxa with planktonic larvae first suffered a marked decline in diversity between the Llandeilo and the Caradoc (end of Middle Ordovician), coincident with the onset of the Ordovician-Silurian glaciation. During this time interval, the paleogeographic ranges of most surviving genera with solely planktonic larvae were severely constricted to lower latitude paleobiogeographic provinces. During the Ashgill (Rawtheyan to Hirnantian), climatic and sea level fluctuations were most extreme because of continued and more extensive glaciation. At this time, when extinctions were particularly severe, there was also a significant effect upon the survivorship of taxa with benthic larvae.

Our results indicate that the proportion of the life cycle spent in the water column, dependent upon a planktonic food source, was a critical factor in the survivorship of trilobite taxa during Middle to Late Ordovician time. Consequently, differences in life history patterns predisposed individual taxa to survival or extinction.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Spring 1989 , pp. 118 - 132
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

Beecher, C. E. 1895. The larval stages of trilobites. American Mineralogist 16:165–196.Google Scholar
Berry, W. B. N., and Boucot, A. J. 1973. Glacio-eustatic control of Late Ordovician–Early Silurian platform sedimentation and faunal changes. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84:275–284.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, W. B. N., Orth, C. J., Wilde, P., Hunt, M. Q., and Gilmore, J. S. 1984. Chemostratigraphy at Dob's Linn, Scotland indicates major change in oceanic ventilation in Ordovician-Silurian boundary interval. Geological Society of America abstracts with Programs 16:444.Google Scholar
Boucot, A. J. 1975. Evolution and Extinction Rate Controls. Developments in Paleontology and Stratigraphy 1. Elsevier Publishing Company; Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Brenchley, P. J., and Newall, G. 1984. Late Ordovician environmental changes and their effect on faunas. Pp. 65–80. In Bruton, D. L. (ed.), Aspects of the Ordovician System. Universitetsforlaget; Oslo.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Fortey, R. A., and Clarkson, E. N. K. 1988. Extinction and the fossil record of the arthropods. Pp. 171–209. In Harwood, G. P. (ed.), Extinction and Survival in the Fossil Record. Systematics Association Special Volume 34. Clarendon Press; Oxford.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E. 1971. Taxonomy and ontogeny of Siluro-Devonian trilobites from near Yass, New South Wales. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 137:1–108.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E. 1980. Ontogenetic studies of Middle Ordovician trilobites from the Esbataottine Formation, Mackenzie Mountains, Canada. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 171:1–74.Google Scholar
Donovan, S. K. 1987. Iridium anomalous no longer? Nature 326:331–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, J. D. 1988. Late Ordovician extinction of North American and British crinoids. Lethaia 21:147–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1977. Trilobites and evolutionary patterns. Pp. 305–332. In Hallam, A. (ed.), Patterns of Evolution, as Illustrated by the Fossil Record. Elsevier Publishing Company; Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evitt, W. R. 1961. Early ontogeny in the trilobite family Asaphidae. Journal of Paleontology 35:986–995.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1975. The Ordovician trilobites of Spitsbergen II. Asaphidae, Nileidae, Raphiophoridae and Telephinidae of the Valhallfonna Formation. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 162.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1980. The Ordovician trilobites of Spitsbergen III. Remaining trilobites of the Valhallfonna Formation. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 171.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1985. Pelagic trilobites as an example of deducing the life habits of extinct arthropods. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 76:219–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A., and Chatterton, B. D. E. 1988. Classification of the trilobite suborder Asaphina. Palaeontology 31:165–222.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., and Morris, S. F. 1978. Discovery of nauplius-like trilobite larvae. Palaeontology 21:823–833.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., and Owens, R. M. 1975. Proetida—a new order of trilobites. Fossils and Strata 4:227–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1985. The paradox of the first tier: an agenda for paleobiology. Paleobiology 11:2–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Calloway, C. B. 1980. Clams and brachiopods—ships that pass in the night. Paleobiology 6:383–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Vrba, E. S. 1982. Exaptation—A missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8:4–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grieve, R. A. F., and Robertson, P. B. 1987. Terrestrial impact structures. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 1658A, 1:63,000,000.Google Scholar
Hamann, W. 1983. Calymenacea (Trilobita) aus dem Ordovizium von Spanien; ihre Biostratigraphie, Ökologie und Systematik. Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturfor-schenden Gesellschaft 542.Google Scholar
Hambrey, M. J., and Harland, W. B. 1981. Earth's Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hu, C.-H. 1971. Ontogeny and sexual dimorphism of Lower Paleozoic trilobites. Palaeontographica Americana 7:31–155.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D., and Lutz, R. A. 1983. Larval ecology of marine benthic invertebrates: paleobiological implications. Biological Reviews 58:21–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitchell, J. A. 1986. The selectivity of mass extinction: causal dependency between life-history and survivorship. Fourth North American Paleontological Convention, Abstracts:A25.Google Scholar
Kitchell, J. A., Clark, D. L., and Gombos, A. M. Jr. 1986. Biological selectivity of extinction: a link between background and mass extinction. Palaios 1:504–511.Google Scholar
Lu, Y.-H., and Wu, H. J. 1982. The ontogeny of Platycoryphe sinensis and its bearing on the phylogeny of the Homalonotidae (Trilobita). [Chinese, with English summary.] Acta Palaeontogica Sinica 21:37–56.Google Scholar
Ludvigsen, R. 1979. Middle Ordovician trilobite biofacies, southern Mackenzie Mountains. Pp. 1–33. In Stelck, C. R., and Chatterton, B. D. E. (eds.), Western and Arctic Canadian Biostratigraphy. Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 18.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L. 1985. Mass extinction patterns of marine invertebrate groups and some implications for a causal phenomenon. Paleobiology 11:227–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNamara, K. J. 1980. Taxonomy and distribution of chasmopine trilobites. Geological Magazine 117:65–80.Google Scholar
Mauchline, J. 1980. The biology of mysids. Pp. 3–369. In Baxter, J. H. S., Russell, F. S., and Yonge, C. M. (eds.), Advances in Marine Biology 18. Academic Press; New York and London.Google Scholar
Nowlan, G. S., Goodfellow, W. D., McCracken, A. D., and Lenz, A. C. 1988. Geochemical evidence for sudden biomass reduction and anoxic basins near the Ordovician-Silurian boundary in northwestern Canada. Fifth International Symposium on the Ordovician System, Program and Abstracts:66.Google Scholar
Orth, C. J., Gilmore, J. S., Quintana, L. R., and Sheehan, P. M. 1986. Terminal Ordovician extinction: Geochemical analysis of the Ordovician-Silurian boundary, Anticosti Island, Quebec. Geology 14:433–436.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Over, D. J., and Chatterton, B. D. E. 1987. Silurian conodonts from the southern Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. Geologica et Palaeontologica 21:1–49.Google Scholar
Owen, A. W. 1986. The uppermost Ordovician (Hirnantia) trilobites of Girvan, southwest Scotland, with a review of coeval trilobite faunas. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Earth Sciences 72:231–239.Google Scholar
Owen, A. W. 1987. The Scandinavian Middle Ordovician trinucleid trilobites. Palaeontology 30:75–103.Google Scholar
Owens, R. M. 1973. British Ordovician and Silurian Proetidae (Trilobita). Paleontographical Society Monographs.Google Scholar
Petryk, A. A. 1982. Aulacerid ecostratigraphy of Anticosti Island, and its bearing on the Ordovician-Silurian boundary and the Upper Ordovician glacial episode. Third North American Paleontological Convention 2:393–399.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1977. Stochastic models in evolutionary palaeontology. Pp. 59–78. In Hallam, A. (ed.), Patterns of Evolution, as Illustrated by the Fossil Record. Elsevier Publishing Company; Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D. M., and Gould, S. J. 1974. Stochastic simulation and evolution of morphology—towards a nomothetic paleontology. Systematic Zoology 23:305–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D. M., and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1982. Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record. Science 215:1501–1503.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M., Gould, S. J., and Simberloff, D. S. 1973. Stochastic models of phylogeny and the evolution of diversity. Journal of Geology 81:525–542.Google Scholar
Raw, F. 1925. The development of Leptoplastus salteri and other trilobites. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 81:223–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrank, E. 1977. Zur Paläobiogeographie silurischer Trilobiten. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 155:108–136.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1982. A compendium of fossil marine families. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology 51.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M. 1973. The relation of Late Ordovician glaciation to the Ordovician-Silurian changeover in North American brachiopod faunas. Lethaia 6:147–154.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M. 1975. Brachiopod synecology in a time of crisis (Late Ordovician-Early Silurian). Paleobiology 1:205–212.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M. 1982. Brachiopod macroevolution at the Ordovician-Silurian boundary. Third North American Paleontological Convention 2:477–481.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M. 1986. Brachiopod zoogeography at the terminal Ordovician extinction. Fourth North American Paleontological Convention, Abstracts:A42.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
Skevington, D. 1974a. Ordovician graptolites. Pp. 27–35. In Hallam, A. (ed.), Atlas of Paleobiogeography. Elsevier Publishing Company; Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Skevington, D. 1974b. Controls influencing the composition and distribution of Ordovician graptolite faunal provinces. Special Papers in Palaeontology 13:59–73.Google Scholar
Smith, A. G., Hurley, A. M., and Briden, J. C. 1981. Phanerozoic Paleocontinental World Maps. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge.Google Scholar
Šnajdr, M. 1960. Studie of čeledi Scutelluidae (Trilobitae). Rozpravy Ústředního üstavu geologického 26.Google Scholar
Speyer, S. E., and Chatterton, B. D. E. 1987. Trilobite larvae and larval ecology. Geological Society of America, abstracts with Programs 19:853.Google Scholar
Speyer, S. E., and Chatterton, B. D. E.In press. Trilobite larvae and larval ecology, I. Mode of Life. Historical Biology 2.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1984a. Marine mass extinctions: a dominant role for temperature. Pp. 69–117. In Nitecki, M. H. (ed.), Extinctions. University of Chicago Press; Chicago.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1984b. Temperature and biotic crises in the marine realm. Geology 12:205–208.Google Scholar
Teichert, C. 1987. Extinctions and extinctions. Palaios 2:411.Google Scholar
Thomas, A. T., and Owens, R. M. 1978. A review of the trilobite family Aulacopleuridae. Palaeontology 21:65–81.Google Scholar
Thorson, G. 1936. Larval development, growth and development of Arctic marine bottom invertebrates compared with those of other seas. Meddelelser om Gr⊘nland 100.Google Scholar
Thorson, G. 1950. Reproductive and larval ecology of marine bottom invertebrates. Biological Reviews 25:1–45.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1986. The Permian-Triassic extinction event and invertebrate developmental modes. Bulletin of Marine Science 39:607–615.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W., and Jablonski, D. 1983. Larval adaptations and patterns of brachiopod diversity in space and time. Evolution 37:1052–1061.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W., and Jablonski, D. 1986. Mass extinctions: sensitivity of marine larval types. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 83:6912–6914.Google Scholar
Van Der Voo, R. 1988. Paleozoic paleogeography of North America, Gondwana, and intervening displaced terranes: comparisons of paleomagnetism with paleoclimatology and biogeographical patterns. Geological Society of America Bulletin 100:311–324.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1959. Ontogeny of Trilobita. Pp. 127–144. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part O, Arthropoda 1. The Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas; Boulder, Colorado and Lawrence, Kansas.Google Scholar
Whittington, H B. 1966. Phylogeny and distribution of Ordovician trilobites. Journal of Paleontology 40:696–737.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B., and Hughes, C. P. 1972. Ordovician geography and faunal provinces deduced from trilobite distribution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 263:235–278.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B., and Hughes, C. P. 1973. Ordovician trilobite distribution and geography. Special Papers in Palaeontology 12:235–240.Google Scholar
Wilde, P., Berry, W. B. N., Quinby-Hunt, M. S., Orth, C. J., Quintana, L. R., and Gilmore, J. S. 1986. Iridium abundances across the Ordovician-Silurian stratotype. Science 233:339–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed