Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (6) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lockwood, R. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Body size, extinction events, and the early Cenozoic record of veneroid bivalves: a new role for recoveries?

¹ Rowan Lockwood. Department of Geology, The College of William and Mary, Post Office Box 8795, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187. rxlock{at}wm.edu

Mass extinctions can play a role in shaping macroevolutionary trends through time, but the contribution of recoveries to this process has yet to be examined in detail. This study focuses on the effects of three extinction events, the end-Cretaceous (K/T), mid-Eocene (mid-E), and end-Eocene (E/O), on long-term patterns of body size in veneroid bivalves. Systematic data were collected for 719 species and 140 subgenera of veneroids from the Late Cretaceous through Oligocene of North America and Europe. Centroid size measures were calculated for 101 subgenera and global stratigraphic ranges were used to assess extinction selectivity and preferential recovery. Veneroids underwent a substantial extinction at the K/T boundary, although diversity recovered to pre-extinction levels by the early Eocene. The mid-E and E/O events were considerably smaller and their recovery intervals much shorter. None of these events were characterized by significant extinction selectivity according to body size at the subgenus level; however, all three recoveries were strongly size biased. The K/T recovery was biased toward smaller veneroids, whereas both the mid-E and E/O recoveries were biased toward larger ones. The decrease in veneroid size across the K/T recovery actually reinforced a Late Cretaceous trend toward smaller sizes, whereas the increase in size resulting from the Eocene recoveries was relatively short-lived. Early Cenozoic changes in predation, temperature, and/or productivity may explain these shifts.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. M. Novack-Gottshall Using Simple Body-Size Metrics to Estimate Fossil Body Volume: Empirical Validation Using Diverse Paleozoic Invertebrates Palaios, March 1, 2008; 23(3): 163 - 173. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. M. Novack-Gottshall Ecosystem-wide body-size trends in Cambrian-Devonian marine invertebrate lineages Paleobiology, March 1, 2008; 34(2): 210 - 228. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. M. Rivadeneira and P. A. Marquet Selective extinction of late Neogene bivalves on the temperate Pacific coast of South America Paleobiology, June 1, 2007; 33(3): 455 - 468. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. A. KOSNIK, D. JABLONSKI, R. LOCKWOOD, and P. M. NOVACK-GOTTSHALL QUANTIFYING MOLLUSCAN BODY SIZE IN EVOLUTIONARY AND ECOLOGICAL ANALYSES: MAXIMIZING THE RETURN ON DATA-COLLECTION EFFORTS Palaios, December 1, 2006; 21(6): 588 - 597. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. T. Smith and K. Roy Selectivity during background extinction: Plio-Pleistocene scallops in California Paleobiology, September 1, 2006; 32(3): 408 - 416. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]