Palaeoenvironmental changes across the Permian/Triassic boundary at Shangsi (N. Sichuan,China)

The section at Shangsi in Sichuan contains one of the most detailed and best records of events during the Permian/Triassic (P/T) mass extinction. Continuous deep water deposition is only punctuated by a minor shallowing in the late Changxingian. The micritic mudstones and wackestones of the Changxingian Dalong Formation contain abundant ammonoids and radiolaria and diverse and common benthic taxa (mostly bivalves and brachiopods) in a thoroughly bioturbated sediment. The presence of a well developed tiered burrow profile is just one line of evidence for a fully oxygenated water column in the late Permian. The faunal crisis occurs in the top few decimetres of the Dalong Formation and severely affected all groups (benthos, nekton and plankton). The extinction coincides precisely with the development of anaerobic and dysaerobic facies. The basal Triassic sediments of the Feixanguan Formation are thinnly‐bedded or laminated silicic marls and contain pyrite and several levels of elevated organic carbon concentrations. The fauna is restricted to rare ammonoids and a few bedding planes covered in Claraia. The presence of abundant coccoid cyanobacteria in these sediments may indicate an unusually simple trophic web in the early Triassic seas as these picoautotrophs are normally grazed by zooplankton, they are rarely directly incorporated into seafloor sediment. The recent discovery of black shales in P/T pelagic sediments of Japan indicates that the anoxic event also affected deep ocean waters and further strengthens the link between extinction and anoxia.     

Facies of two important Early Triassic gastropod lagerstätten: implications for diversity patterns in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction

Two important lagerstätten of Early Triassic gastropods, the Sinbad Limestone (Utah, USA) and the Gastropod Oolite (North Italy) yield about 40% of all described Early Triassic species. This great contribution to the global diversity and the exceptional good preservation render high information content, which characterizes fossil lagerstätten. The Smithian Sinbad Limestone contains the most diverse Early Triassic gastropod fauna. At the type locality, it occurs in single, probably storm-induced shell bed within a series of high energy deposits underlain by intertidal microbial mats and subtidal oolite/peloid shoals. The main shell bed contains about 40 invertebrate taxa. Gastropods, scaphopods, and bivalves are most abundant and form an assemblage, which is dominated by small neritaemorphs, the opisthobranch Cylindrobullina convexa and the scaphopod Plagioglypta (annulated tubes). This assemblage lived on shallow, subtidal soft-bottoms based on sedimentological and ecological characteristics. The Dienerian (to Smithian?) Gastropod Oolite Member (North Italy) has extremely abundant, probably salinity-controlled gastropod faunas with low species richness. Almost monospecific assemblages of Pseudomurchisonia kokeni as well as assemblages with about four species are present in the Gastropod Oolite. Modern hydrobiid mudsnail faunas which are adapted to strongly fluctuating salinity in intertidal to shallow subtidal coastal areas form probably a suitable model for the Gastropod Oolite biota. Gastropods from the Werfen- and Moenkopi-Formation lagerstätten are well preserved compared to other Early Triassic deposits. The high contribution to the global diversity of just two sites suggests very incomplete sampling and preservational bias. However, the low richness of the major faunas reflects depauperate Early Triassic faunas and slow recovery from the Permian/Triassic crisis.     

二叠纪-三叠纪礁相房室海绵演化与灭绝

就礁相房室海绵而言,早二叠世的物种数最少,中二叠世的分异度最高,晚二叠世的其次,中三叠世的较少,卡尼斯的增多,诺利期的更多。礁相房室海绵的演化反映出二叠纪－三叠纪有3次灭绝事件,分别发生在中二叠世末期、长兴期末期、卡尼期末期。这3次灭绝事件的规模各不相同：中二叠世末期的灭绝事件规模较小,它使83．8％的中二叠世礁相房室海绵种灭绝;长兴期末期的灭绝规模最大,它使100％的长兴期种灭绝;卡尼期末的灭绝事件规模也较大,它使97．7％的卡尼期种灭绝。     

Battenizyga, a new Early Triassic gastropod genus with a discussion of the caenogastropod evolution at the Permian/Triassic boundary

Battenizyga, a new Early Triassic gastropod genus from the Moenkopi Formation of Utah, is described and the speciesAnoptychia eotriassica Batten & Stokes, 1986 is placed in it. The new genus has an axially ribbed planktonic larval shell and a teleoconch with an angulated periphery. This character combination is unknown from the Palaeozoic. Therefore,Battenizyga represents additional evidence that recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction was connected with a faunal turnover. Additionally, the extinction of diverse Palaeozoic groups of the Caenogastropoda in the Permian (e.g., the Pseudozygopleuridae) suggest a turnover. All caenogastropod genera that hold Early Triassic species, have post-Palaeozoic type species and most were not reported from the Palaeozoic. This corroborates the view that there was an intense faunal turnover within the Caenogastropoda.Battenizyga is probably a caenogastropod that is closely related to the superfamily Zygopleuroidea which is abundant in the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic.      

Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time

The end-Permian mass extinction, 251 million years (Myr) ago, was the most devastating ecological event of all time, and it was exacerbated by two earlier events at the beginning and end of the Guadalupian, 270 and 260 Myr ago. Ecosystems were destroyed worldwide, communities were restructured and organisms were left struggling to recover. Disaster taxa, such as Lystrosaurus, insinuated themselves into almost every corner of the sparsely populated landscape in the earliest Triassic, and a quick taxonomic recovery apparently occurred on a global scale. However, close study of ecosystem evolution shows that true ecological recovery was slower. After the end-Guadalupian event, faunas began rebuilding complex trophic structures and refilling guilds, but were hit again by the end-Permian event. Taxonomic diversity at the alpha (community) level did not recover to pre-extinction levels; it reached only a low plateau after each pulse and continued low into the Late Triassic. Our data showed that though there was an initial rise in cosmopolitanism after the extinction pulses, large drops subsequently occurred and, counter-intuitively, a surprisingly low level of cosmopolitanism was sustained through the Early and Middle Triassic.     

Permian and early Triassic isotopic records of carbon and strontium in Australia and a scenario of events about the Permian‐Triassic boundary

The negative shift in δ¹³C values of carbonate carbon at the Permian/Triassic boundary is one of the better documented geochemical signatures of a mass extinction event. The similar negative shift in δ¹³C values in organic carbon from Permian/Triassic boundary marine sediments in Austria and Canada is shown to occur also in marine and non‐marine sediments from Australian sedimentary basins. This negative shift in δ¹³C values is used to calibrate Australian sections lacking diagnostic faunal elements identifying the Permian/Triassic boundary. The minimum in the carbonate ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr seawater curve from carbonates across the Guadalupian/Ochoan Stage boundary, mainly from North America, is shown to occur also in brachiopod calcite mainly from the Bowen Basin of eastern Australia, hence providing a second calibration point in the Australian sedimentary record. These two geochemical events support a model of a runaway greenhouse developing about the Permian/Triassic boundary; this is inferred to have contributed to the end‐Permian mass extinction.     

Exceptions to the temperature–size rule: no Lilliput Effect in end-Permian ostracods (Crustacea) from Aras Valley (northwest Iran)

The body size of marine ectotherms is often negatively correlated with ambient water temperature, as seen in many clades during the hyperthermal crisis of the end-Permian mass extinction (c. 252 Ma). However, in the case of ostracods, size changes during ancient hyperthermal events are rarely quantified. In this study, we evaluate the body size changes of ostracods in the Aras Valley section (northwest Iran) in response to the drastic warming during the end-Permian mass extinction at three taxonomic levels: class, order, species. At the assemblage level, the warming triggers a complete species turnover in the Aras Valley section, with larger, newly emerging species dominating the immediate post-extinction assemblage for a short time. Individual ostracod species and instars do not show dwarfing or a change in body size as an adaptation to the temperature stress during the end-Permian crisis. This may indicate that the ostracods in the Aras Valley section might have been exceptions to the temperature–size rule (TSR), using an adaptation mechanism that does not involve a decrease in body size. This adaptation might be similar to the accelerated development despite constant instar body sizes that can be observed in some recent experimental studies of ostracod responses to thermal stress.     

Late Wenlock (Middle Silurian) global Bioevent: Possible chemical cause for mass graptolite mortalities

Graptolites nearly became extinct in the latest Wenlock in all preserved stratigraphic sequences of this age. Graptolite mortalities occurred along the western coast of Laurentia and at sites that surrounded the Proto‐Tethys. Graptolite mass mortalities took place among deep‐water, open ocean dwelling organisms. After the mass mortalities, only the Pristiograptus dubius group and retiolids surface or near‐surface dwellers, survived. For a period of time, little speciation or diversification occurred. The base of the Ludlow is marked by diversification, with appearances of S. colonus, M. nilssoni and other groups which occur in near surface waters. None of the extensive plate movements postulated for the Silurian readily explain the mass extinctions that occurred. During the Silurian, global temperatures were warmer than present and atmospheric oxygen concentrations were lower, creating extensive oceanic anoxia. Below the oxygenated surface layers of the ocean, was an anoxic, non‐sulfidic zone (i.e. nitrate‐reducing) above a sulfidic zone. Graptolites lived over a range of depth from the oxygenated zone to either near or in the nitrate‐reducing zones. As the oxygen concentration declined through the Silurian, the depth of the oxic zone would have become shoaler with expanding anoxia. Late Wenlock graptolites that were unable to migrate to shallower depths, living in borderline oxygen conditions, could have been killed, resulting in the mortalities of the late Wenlock. Only those graptolites that were surface dwellers survived, adapted and reradiated.     

前乐平统海洋动物灾变事件

作为古生代最后阶段的乐平统可划分为２个阶和４个亚阶,暂以逼近自然界线的Ｃｌａｒｋｉｎａ ｐｏｓｔｂｉｔｔｅｒｉ带之底为下界;在二叠纪形成了栖霞期之前和吴家坪期之前两个超序界面,乐平世海侵居于二叠一三叠纪超序的低水位体系,乐平世末的海泛淹没了古特提斯区的残留陆棚;二叠纪末的生物大绝灭形成规模和性质不同的两幕;茅口期末全球性海退使栖居地丧失而导致地方性类群和远洋浮游生物灭亡的前乐平统海泮动物灾变事件,     

Ostracod recovery in the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic crisis: Palaeozoic–Mesozoic turnover

Results of a detailed bathymetric survey of Crater Lake conducted in 2000, combined with previous results of submersible and dredge sampling, form the basis for a geologic map of the lake floor and a model for the filling of Crater Lake with water. The most prominent landforms beneath the surface of Crater Lake are andesite volcanoes that were active as the lake was filling with water, following caldera collapse during the climactic eruption of Mount Mazama 7700 cal. yr B.P. The Wizard Island volcano is the largest and probably was active longest, ceasing eruptions when the lake was 80 m lower than present. East of Wizard Island is the central platform volcano and related lava flow fields on the caldera floor. Merriam Cone is a symmetrical andesitic volcano that apparently was constructed subaqueously during the same period as the Wizard Island and central platform volcanoes. The youngest postcaldera volcanic feature is a small rhyodacite dome on the east flank of the Wizard Island edifice that dates from 4800 cal. yr B.P. The bathymetry also yields information on bedrock outcrops and talus/debris slopes of the caldera walls. Gravity flows transport sediment from wall sources to the deep basins of the lake. Several debris-avalanche deposits, containing blocks up to 280 m long, are present on the caldera floor and occur below major embayments in the caldera walls. Geothermal phenomena on the lake floor are bacterial mats, pools of solute-rich warm water, and fossil subaqueous hot spring deposits. Lake level is maintained by a balance between precipitation and inflow versus evaporation and leakage. High-resolution bathymetry reveals a series of up to nine drowned beaches in the upper 30 m of the lake that we propose reflect stillstands subsequent to filling of Crater Lake. A prominent wave-cut platform between 4 m depth and present lake level that commonly is up to 40 m wide suggests that the surface of Crater Lake has been at this elevation for a very long time. Lake level apparently is limited by leakage through a permeable layer in the northeast caldera wall. The deepest drowned beach approximately corresponds to the base of the permeable layer. Among a group of lake filling models, our preferred one is constrained by the drowned beaches, the permeable layer in the caldera wall, and paleoclimatic data. We used a precipitation rate 70% of modern as a limiting case. Satisfactory models require leakage to be proportional to elevation and the best fit model has a linear combination of 45% leakage proportional to elevation and 55% of leakage proportional to elevation above the base of the permeable layer. At modern precipitation rates, the lake would have taken 420 yr to fill, or a maximum of 740 yr if precipitation was 70% of the modern value. The filling model provides a chronology for prehistoric passage zones on postcaldera volcanoes that ceased erupting before the lake was filled.     

茅口期■类动物的灭绝过程——灭绝选择性与物种个体大小关系的验证

对茅口期类动物群灭绝过程的分析揭示 ,若将类物种按壳体大小分为两类 ,从动物群物种分异度、物种净增速率的变化来看 ,大个体 (壳长 >6mm)物种与小个体 (壳长≤ 6mm)物种的灭绝过程并无明显的区别。根据壳壁等特征 ,茅口期类可分为南京类、希瓦格类、费伯克类和新希瓦格类 4个主要类群 ,各主要类群及其壳体大小不同的物种灭绝过程有明显的差异。在灭绝事件早期 ,各类群及其壳体大小不同的两类物种所受的影响有所不同。在早期的灭绝中 ,南京类、新希瓦格类、希瓦格类中壳长 >6mm和费伯克类中壳长≤ 6mm的物种显著减少 ,而希瓦格类中壳长≤ 6mm以及费伯克类中壳长 >6mm的物种则未受明显的影响。在茅口期晚期 ,由于灭绝压力的增大 ,除南京类外 ,所有类群及其物种无论个体大小均受到重创 ,导致类动物群物种分异度陡然下降研究结果证明 ,在灭绝强度较小时 ,类动物的生物学特征 ,如壳体大小、壳壁特征对物种的存活率有一定影响 ,而在集群灭绝的高峰期间 ,这些特征则不能发挥有效的作用