Differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas in a greenhouse world

Crame, J. Alistair ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5027-9965; McGowan, Alistair J.; Bell, Mark A.. 2018 Differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas in a greenhouse world. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 27 (5). 518-537. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12714

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Text This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Crame JA, McGowan AJ, Bell MA. Differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas in a greenhouse world. Global Ecol Biogeogr. 2018;27:518-537, which has been published in final form at https:// doi.org/10.1111/geb.12714. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Differentiation in a greenhouse world 2.doc - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0. Download (889kB)

Abstract/Summary

Aim The aim was to investigate those factors that influenced the differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas on both ecological and evolutionary time-scales. Can a focus on a greenhouse world provide some important clues? Location World-wide, but with particular emphasis on the evolution of Antarctic marine faunas. Time period Early Cenozoic era and present day. Major taxa studied Mollusca, especially Neogastropoda. Methods The Early Cenozoic global radiation of one of the largest extant marine clades, Neogastropoda, was examined, and detailed comparisons were made between two tropical localities and Antarctica. High- to low-latitude faunal differentiation was assessed using Sørensen's dissimilarity index, and component species in each of the three faunas were assigned to 29 families and family groups. Relative diversity distributions were fitted to these three faunas and two modern ones to assess the contrast in evenness between high- and low-latitude assemblages. Results By the Middle Eocene, a distinct high-latitude neogastropod fauna had evolved in Antarctica. In addition, the distribution of species within families in this fauna is statistically significantly less even than that in the tropics. Indeed, there is no detectable difference in the scale of this separation from that seen today. Exactly as in the modern fauna, Middle Eocene Antarctic neogastropods are dominated by a small number of trophic generalist groups. Main conclusions As the hyperdiverse Neogastropoda clade radiated globally through the Early Cenozoic, it differentiated into distinct high- and low-latitude components. The fact that it did so in a greenhouse world strongly suggests that something else besides temperature was involved in this process. The predominance of generalist feeding types in the Antarctic fossil faunas is linked to the phenomenon of a seasonally pulsed food supply, exactly as it is today. Seasonality in primary productivity may act as a fundamental control on the evolution of large-scale biodiversity patterns

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12714
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation
ISSN:	1466-8238
Additional Keywords:	dominance in faunas, faunal differentiation, greenhouse world, Neogastropoda, rank abundance models, relative diversity distributions, seasonality in productivity, trophic generalists
Date made live:	22 Feb 2018 09:37 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516972

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