Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T09:39:28.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The K/T event and infaunality: morphological and ecological patterns of extinction and recovery in veneroid bivalves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Rowan Lockwood*
Affiliation:
Rowan Lockwood. Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Abstract

Although the causes of mass extinctions have been studied in detail, recoveries have received little attention until recently. In this study, I examine the influence of extinction versus recovery intervals on ecological patterns across the end-Cretaceous (K/T) event in veneroid bivalves. Systematic and stratigraphic data were collected for 140 subgenera of veneroids, ranging from the Late Cretaceous through Oligocene of North America and Europe. Morphological data were collected for 1236 specimens representing 101 subgenera. Extinction selectivity and differential recovery were assessed with respect to morphology, and by extension, burrowing ecology in these bivalves. Eighty-one percent of veneroid subgenera went extinct at the K/T and diversity did not return to preextinction levels until 12 million years later. Despite the severity of the K/T extinction, I found little evidence of morphological or ecological selectivity. The K/T recovery, in contrast, was strongly biased toward taxa with deep pallial sinuses (i.e., toward deeper burrowers). For veneroids, the morphological and ecological effects of the K/T event are not tied to the extinction itself, but to the recovery that followed. The K/T recovery initiated a trend toward deeper burrowing that helped to establish veneroids as one of the most abundant and successful groups of modern marine bivalves.

Type
Research Article
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

Abbott, R. T. 1974. American seashells. D. Van Nostrand, New York.Google Scholar
Abbott, R. T., and Dance, S. P. 2000. Compendium of seashells. Odyssey, El Cajon, Calif.Google Scholar
Arens, N. C., and Jahren, A. H. 2000. Carbon isotope excursion in atmospheric CO2 at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary: evidence from terrestrial sediments. Palaios 15:314322.Google Scholar
Arnold, A. J., Parker, W. C., and Hansard, S. P. 1995. Aspects of the post-Cretaceous recovery of Cenozoic planktic foraminifera. Marine Micropaleontology 26:319327.Google Scholar
Bambach, R. K. 1999. Energetics in the global marine fauna: a connection between terrestrial diversification and change in the marine biosphere. Geobios 32:131144.Google Scholar
Beesley, P. L., Ross, G. J. B., and Wells, A., eds. 1998. Mollusca: the southern synthesis. Fauna of Australia, Vol. 5. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Bookstein, F. L. 1991. Morphometric tools for landmark data: geometry and biology. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Clemens, W. A. 1986. Evolution of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna during the Cretaceous-Tertiary transition. Pp. 6385in Elliott, D. K., ed. Dynamics of extinction. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Copper, P. 1994a. Reefs under stress: the fossil record. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 172:8794.Google Scholar
Copper, P. 1994b. Ancient reef ecosystem expansion and collapse. Coral Reefs 13:311.Google Scholar
Cox, L. R., et al. 1969. Mollusca 6, Bivalvia, Vols. 1, 2. Part N ofMoore, R. C., ed. Treatise on invertebrate paleontology. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo., and University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Crampton, J. S. 1995. Elliptic Fourier shape analysis of fossil bivalves: some practical considerations. Lethaia 28:179186.Google Scholar
Dall, W. H. 1902. A synopsis of the family Veneridae and description of the North American Recent species. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 26:335412.Google Scholar
Dhondt, A. V. 1987. Bivalves from the Hochmoos Formation (Gosau-Group, Oberösterreich, Austria). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 88A:41101.Google Scholar
Dilley, F. C. 1977. Cretaceous larger foraminifera. Pp. 403419in Hallam, A., ed. Atlas of palaeobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Dockery, D. T. 1977. Mollusca of the Moodys Branch Formation, Mississippi. Mississippi Geological, Economic, and Topographical Survey Bulletin 120.Google Scholar
Dockery, D. T. 1982. Lower Oligocene Bivalvia of the Vicksburg Group in Mississippi. Mississippi Department of Natural Resources Bulletin 123.Google Scholar
Dryden, I. L., and Mardia, K. V. 1998. Statistical shape analysis. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Eble, G. 2000. Contrasting evolutionary flexibility in sister groups; disparity and diversity in Mesozoic atelostomate echinoids. Paleobiology 26:5679.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 1996. Understanding biotic recoveries: extinction, survival, and preservation during the end-Permian mass extinction. Pp. 398418in Jablonski, D., Erwin, D. H., and Lipps, J. H., eds. Evolutionary paleobiology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 1998a. After the end: recovery from extinction. Science 279:13241325.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 1998b. The end and the beginning: recoveries from mass extinctions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13:344349.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 1999. Biotic recoveries from mass extinctions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 154.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H. 2001. Lessons from the past: biotic recoveries from mass extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98:53995403.Google Scholar
Ferson, S. F., Rohlf, F. J., and Koehn, R. K. 1985. Measuring shape variation of two-dimensional outlines. Systematic Zoology 34:5968.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 1993. Discordance and concordance between morphological and taxonomic diversity. Paleobiology 19:185204.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 2000. Origination and extinction components of taxonomic diversity: general problems. In Erwin, D. H. and Wing, S. L., eds. Deep time: paleobiology's perspective. Paleobiology 26(Suppl. to No. 4):74102.Google Scholar
Frizzell, D. L. 1936. Preliminary reclassification of veneracean pelecypods. Bulletin du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 5:184.Google Scholar
Haines, A. J., and Crampton, J. S. 2000. Improvements to the method of Fourier shape analysis as applied in morphometric studies. Palaeontology 43:765783.Google Scholar
Håkansson, E., and Thomsen, E. 1999. Benthic extinction and recovery patterns at the K/T boundary in shallow water carbonates, Denmark. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 154:6785.Google Scholar
Hansen, T. A. 1988. Early Tertiary radiation of marine molluscs and the long-term effects of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. Paleobiology 14:3751.Google Scholar
Hansen, T. A., Farrand, R. B., Montgomery, H. A., Billman, H. G., and Blechschmidt, G. 1987. Sedimentation and extinction patterns across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary interval in east Texas. Cretaceous Research 8:229252.Google Scholar
Hansen, T., Farrell, B. R., and Upshaw, B. 1993. The first 2 million years after the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in east Texas: rate and paleoecology of the molluscan recovery. Paleobiology 19:251265.Google Scholar
Hansen, T. A., Kelley, P. H., Melland, V. D., and Graham, S. E. 1999. Effect of climate-related mass extinctions on escalations in molluscs. Geology 27:11391142.Google Scholar
Harper, C. W. Jr. 1975. Standing diversity of fossil groups in successive intervals of geologic time: a new measure. Journal of Paleontology 49:752757.Google Scholar
Harries, P. J. 1993. Dynamics of survival following the Cenomanian-Turonian mass extinction event. Cretaceous Research 15:563583.Google Scholar
Hart, M. B. 1996. Biotic recovery from mass extinction events. Geological Society of London Special Publication 102.Google Scholar
Harte, M. 1998a. The evolution of Mercenaria Schumacher 1817 (Bivalvia: Veneridae). Pp. 305315in Johnston, P. A. and Haggart, J. W., eds. Bivalves: an eon of evolution. University of Calgary Press, Calgary.Google Scholar
Harte, M. 1998b. Superfamily Veneroidea. Pp. 355362in Beesley, et al. 1998.Google Scholar
Harte, M. 1999. Is Cyclininae a monophyletic subfamily of Veneridae? Malacologia 40:297304.Google Scholar
Heinberg, C. 1999. Lower Danian bivalves, Stevns Klint, Denmark; continuity across the K/T boundary. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 154:87106.Google Scholar
Hottinger, L. 1977. Selected Paleogene larger foraminifera. Pp. 443452in Hallam, A., ed. Atlas of palaeobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D. 1998. Geographic variation in the molluscan recovery from the end-Cretaceous extinction. Science 279:13271330.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D., and Raup, D. M. 1995. Selectivity of end-Cretaceous marine bivalve extinctions. Science 268:389391.Google Scholar
Jukes-Browne, A. J. 1908. On the genera of Veneridae represented in the Cretaceous and older Tertiary deposits. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 8:148177.Google Scholar
Kelley, P. H., and Hansen, T. A. 1993. Evolution of the naticid gastropod predator-prey system: an evaluation of the hypothesis of escalation. Palaios 8:358375.Google Scholar
Kelley, P. H., and Hansen, T. A. 1996. Recovery of the naticid gastropod predator-prey system from the Cretaceous-Tertiary and Eocene-Oligocene extinctions. In Hart, M. B., ed. Biotic recovery from mass extinction events. Geological Society of London Special Publication 102:373386.Google Scholar
Kirby, M. X., and Saul, L. R. 1995. The Tethyan bivalve Roudairia from the Upper Cretaceous of California. Palaeontology 38:2338.Google Scholar
Kirchner, J. W., and Weil, A. 2000. Delayed biological recovery from extinctions throughout the fossil record. Nature 404:177180.Google Scholar
Kitchell, J. A., Clark, D. L., and Gombos, A. M. Jr. 1986. Biological selectivity and extinction: a link between background and mass extinction. Palaios 1:504511.Google Scholar
Kondo, Y. 1987. Burrowing depth of infaunal bivalves—observation of living species and its relation to shell morphology. Transactions and Proceedings of the Palaeontological Society of Japan 148:306323.Google Scholar
Lohmann, G. P. 1983. Eigenshape analysis of microfossils: a general morphometric procedure for describing changes in shape. Mathematical Geology 15:659672.Google Scholar
MacLeod, N. 1999. Generalizing and extending the eigenshape method of shape space visualization and analysis. Paleobiology 25:107138.Google Scholar
Marwick, J. 1927. The Veneridae of New Zealand. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 57:567635.Google Scholar
McGhee, G. R. 1995. Geometry of evolution in the biconvex Brachiopoda: morphological effects of mass extinction. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 197:357382.Google Scholar
Norris, R. D. 1991. Biased extinction and evolutionary trends. Paleobiology 17:388399.Google Scholar
Norris, R. D. 1992. Extinction selectivity and ecology in planktonic foraminifera. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 95:117.Google Scholar
Palmer, K. V. W. 1927. The Veneridae of Eastern America: Cenozoic and Recent. Palaeontologica Americana 1:209522.Google Scholar
Palmer, K. V. W., and Brann, D. C. 1965. Catalogue of the Paleocene and Eocene Mollusca of the Southern and Eastern United States. Bulletin of American Paleontology No. 48.Google Scholar
Retallack, G. J., Veevers, J. J., and Morante, R. 1996. Global coal gap between Permian-Triassic extinction and Middle Triassic recovery of peat-forming plants. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108:195207.Google Scholar
Rice, W. M. 1989. Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223225.Google Scholar
Robeck, H. E., Maley, C. C., and Donoghue, M. J. 2000. Taxonomy and temporal diversity patterns. Paleobiology 26:171187.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohlf, F. J., and Ferson, S. 1992. Elliptical Fourier Analysis (EFA). Morphometrics at SUNY Stony Brook. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.1 Jan 2001. http://129.49.19.42/morph/Google Scholar
Roopnarine, P. D. 1996. Systematics, biogeography, and extinction of Chionine bivalves in tropical America: early Oligocene-Recent. Malacologia 38:103142.Google Scholar
Roopnarine, P. D., and Vermeij, G. J. 2000. One species becomes two: the case of Chione cancellata, the resurrected C. elevata, and a phylogenetic analysis of Chione. Journal of Molluscan Studies 66:517534.Google Scholar
Roy, K. 1994. Effects of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution on the taxonomic, morphologic, and biogeographic evolution of a group: aporrhaid gastropods during the Mesozoic. Paleobiology 20:274296.Google Scholar
Russell, D. 1977. The biotic crisis at the end of the Cretaceous period. In Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions and possible terrestrial and extraterrestrial causes. Syllogeus 12:1123. National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Saul, L. R. 1993. Pacific slope Cretaceous bivalves: eight venerid species. Journal of Paleontology 67:965979.Google Scholar
Saul, L. R., and Popenoe, W. P. 1992. Pacific slope Cretaceous bivalves of the genus Calva. Contributions in Science, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History 433:168.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., and Kendrick, D. C. 1993. Numerical experiments with model monophyletic and paraphyletic taxa. Paleobiology 19:168184.Google Scholar
Slack-Smith, S. M. 1998a. Superfamily Arcticoidea. Pp. 348351in Beesley, et al. 1998.Google Scholar
Slack-Smith, S. M. 1998b. Superfamily Glossoidea. Pp. 351352in Beesley, et al. 1998.Google Scholar
Smith, A. B., and Jeffery, C. H. 1998. Selectivity of extinction among sea urchins at the end of the Cretaceous period. Nature 392:6971.Google Scholar
Smith, A. B., Gallemi, J., Jeffrey, C. H., Ernst, G., and Ward, P. D. 1999. Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary echinoids from northern Spain: implications for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum London (Geology) 55:81137.Google Scholar
Sohl, N. F., and Koch, C. F. 1983. Upper Cretaceous (Maestrichtian) Mollusca from the Haustator bilira assemblage zone in the East Gulf Coastal Plain. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 83–451.Google Scholar
Sohl, N. F., and Koch, C. F. 1984. Upper Cretaceous (Maestrichtian) Mollusca from the Haustator bilira assemblage zone in the West Gulf Coastal Plain. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84–687.Google Scholar
Sohl, N. F., and Koch, C. F. 1987. Upper Cretaceous (Maestrichtian) Mollusca from the Haustator bilira assemblage zone in the Atlantic Coastal Plain with Further Data for the East Gulf. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 87–194.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1970. Relation of shell form to life habits of the Bivalvia (Mollusca). Geological Society of America Memoir 125.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution: pattern and process. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L. W. 1923. The Cretaceous formations of North Carolina, Part 1. Invertebrate fossils of the Upper Cretaceous formations. North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey 5.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L. W. 1941. The larger invertebrate fossils of the Navarro Group of Texas. University of Texas Publication 4101:1630.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L. W. 1952. Larger invertebrate fossils of the Woodbine formation of Texas. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 242.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L. W. 1954. Additions to the fauna of the Raritan Formation (Cenomanian) of New Jersey. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 264-B.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L. W. 1955. Owl Creek (Upper Cretaceous) fossils from Crowley's Ridge Southeastern Missouri, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 274-E.Google Scholar
Tremlett, W. E. 1953. English Eocene and Oligocene Veneridae, Part 1. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 30:121, 55–71.Google Scholar
Twitchett, R. J. 1999. Palaeoenvironments and faunal recovery after the end-Permian mass extinction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 154:2737.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1977. The Mesozoic marine revolution: evidence from snails, predators, and grazers. Paleobiology 3:245258.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1987. Evolution and escalation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1994. The evolutionary interaction among species: selection, escalation, and coevolution. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 25:219236.Google Scholar
Vokes, H. E. 1980. Genera of the Bivalvia: a systematic and bibliographic catalogue (revised and updated). Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
Wood, R. 2000. Novel paleoecology of a postextinction reef: Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Canning Bason, northwestern Australia. Geology 28:987990.Google Scholar