Late Cretaceous stepwise mass extinction of planktonic foraminifera
Quantitative populations analysis of planktonic foraminifera from DSDP sites 10, 21, 528, 577 and the El Kef section of Tunisia indicates that the terminal Cretaceous mass extinction did not occur as a simple catastrophic event. Rather, the final Cretaceous extinction was heralded by a series of earlier extinction events, indicating a changing paleoenvironment during the late Cretaceous. Extinction events appear stepwise marked by periods of rapid faunal turnover during which dominant faunal elements decline in abundance. Generally, weakened surviving populations are subsequently annihilated during the next stepwise ecologic perturbation. Little or no faunal change appears between these stepwise events. Significantly, extinctions generally affect species which are numerically low in abundance (<3% of the total population). This indicates that the number of taxa going extinct is in itself a poor measure of the extent of ecologic perturbations. Thus, species extinctions and changes in populations dynamics must be viewed together in order to gain an understanding of the complex nature of mass extinctions. The observed stepwise extinction events can potentially be explained by geotectonically induced changes in ocean circulation accompanied by temperature and salinity fluctuations. However, it cannot be ruled out at this time that at least some of the extinction events maybe related to impact events. Further studies will be necessary to find evidence of between extinction events and impacts.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Univ., NJ (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6646197
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
FORAMINIFERA
BIOLOGICAL EXTINCTION
POPULATION DYNAMICS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
PALEONTOLOGY
TUNISIA
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
PLANKTON
POPULATIONS
AFRICA
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC AGES
INVERTEBRATES
MESOZOIC ERA
MICROORGANISMS
PROTOZOA
ROCKS
SARCODINA
580100* - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)