The 260-million-year-old Emeishan volcanic province of southwest China overlies and is interbedded with Middle Permian carbonates that contain a record of the Guadalupian mass extinction. Sections in the region thus provide an opportunity to directly monitor the relative timing of extinction and volcanism within the same locations. These show that the onset of volcanism was marked by both large phreatomagmatic eruptions and extinctions amongst fusulinacean foraminifers and calcareous algae. The temporal coincidence of these two phenomena supports the idea of a cause-and-effect relationship. The crisis predates the onset of a major negative carbon isotope excursion that points to subsequent severe disturbance of the ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1171956 | DOI Listing |
Ecol Lett
January 2025
Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Interactions between species pose considerable challenges for forecasting the response of ecological communities to global changes. Coexistence theory could address this challenge by defining the conditions species can or cannot persist alongside competitors. However, although coexistence theory is increasingly deployed for projections, these frameworks have rarely been subjected to critical multigenerational validation tests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Lett
January 2025
Museum of Zoology & Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Whether large-scale variation in lineage diversification rates can be predicted by species properties at the population level is a key unresolved question at the interface between micro- and macroevolution. All else being equal, species with biological attributes that confer metapopulation stability should persist more often at timescales relevant to speciation and so give rise to new (incipient) forms that share these biological traits. Here, we develop a framework for testing the relationship between metapopulation properties related to persistence and phylogenetic speciation rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Biosci (Schol Ed)
December 2024
Department of Biological Sciences, Virtual University of Pakistan, 55150 Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Background: Vertebrae protein-coding genes exhibit remarkable diversity and are organized into many gene families. These gene families have emerged through various gene duplication events, the most prominent being the two rounds of whole-genome duplication (WGD). The current research project analyzed a unique class of genes called "singletons".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Ecol Evol
December 2024
IBE, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
Ecological variation and anthropogenic landscape modification have had key roles in the diversification and extinction of mammals in Madagascar. Lemurs represent a radiation with more than 100 species, constituting roughly one-fifth of the primate order. Almost all species of lemurs are threatened with extinction, but little is known about their genetic diversity and demographic history.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConserv Physiol
December 2024
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Bay-Delta Office, 801 I St., Suite 140, Sacramento, CA 95814, USA.
Freshwater fishes are increasingly facing extinction. Some species will require conservation intervention such as habitat restoration and/or population supplementation through mass-release of hatchery fish. In California, USA, a number of conservation strategies are underway to increase abundance of the endangered Delta Smelt (); however, it is unclear how different estuarine conditions influence hatchery fish.
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