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Silurian trilobite alpha diversity and the end-Ordovician mass extinction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Jonathan M. Adrain ,
Stephen R. Westrop ,
Brian D. E. Chatterton  and
Lars Ramsköld
Jonathan M. Adrain
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242. E-mail: jonathan-adrain@uiowa.edu
Stephen R. Westrop
Affiliation:
Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019. E-mail: swestrop@ou.edu
Brian D. E. Chatterton
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada
Lars Ramsköld
Affiliation:
Palaeontological Museum, University of Uppsala, Norbyvägen 22, S752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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Abstract

Following the end-Ordovician extinction, global clade diversity of Silurian trilobites dropped to about half of Ordovician levels. Although clade diversity failed to recover, this extinction had surprisingly little long-term impact on the number of trilobite species that occupied local habitats (alpha diversity). A new compilation of data from Laurentia and other continents indicates that Silurian trilobite alpha diversities in all major environments were comparable to those of the Late Cambrian and Ordovician; shallow subtidal diversity reached an all-time high during the Late Ordovician. The profound differences in patterns at local and global levels demonstrate the necessity for a hierarchical approach to analyses of diversity. Factors governing global clade diversity are lodged at hierarchical levels beyond those controlling local species richness and must be sought in studies of between-habitat (beta) or geographic (gamma) diversity.

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Paleobiology , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , Fall 2000 , pp. 625 - 646
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Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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