A New History of Life

by Peter Ward

  11. J. Alroy et al., “Phanerozoic Diversity Trends,” Science 321 (2008): 97.

  12. A. B. Smith, “Large-Scale Heterogeneity of the Fossil Record: Implications for Phanerozoic Biodiversity Studies,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 356, no. 1407 (2001): 351–67; A. B. Smith, “Phanerozoic Marine Diversity: Problems and Prospects,” Journal of the Geological Society, London 164 (2007): 731–45; A. B. Smith and A. J. McGowan, “Cyclicity in the Fossil Record Mirrors Rock Outcrop Area,” Biology Letters 1, no. 4 (2005): 443–45; A. B. Smith, “The Shape of the Marine Palaeodiversity Curve Using the Phanerozoic Sedimentary Rock Record of Western Europe,” Paleontology 50 (2007): 765–74; A. McGowan and A. Smith. “Are Global Phanerozoic Marine Diversity Curves Truly Global? A Study of the Relationship between Regional Rock Records and Global Phanerozoic Marine Diversity,” Paleobiology, 34, no. 1 (2008): 80–103.

  13. M. J. Benton and B. C. Emerson, “How Did Life Become So Diverse? The Dynamics of Diversification According to the Fossil Record and Molecular Phylogenetics,” Palaeontology 50 (2007): 23–40.

  14. S. E. Peters, “Geological Constraints on the Macroevolutionary History of Marine Animals,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (2005): 12326–31.

  15. This is one of our favorite “Emperor Has No Clothes” moments in paleontology. A team from University of Kansas hypothesized that the Ordovician could have been caused by in intense gamma-ray burst from deep space. Such events, in which enormous energy pours out of small but energetic stars such as a pulsar or magnetar at galactic distances, are real enough. But the suggestions that one such gamma-ray burst (GRB) fried the Earth, causing the Ordovician mass extinction, is just fanciful. There is not a shred of evidence connecting a GRB to the Ordovician mass extinction. It could as easily have been caused by Vulcans or Darth Vader on a bad day (but were there any other kinds for poor Vader?). See A. L. Melott and B. C. Thomas, “Late Ordovician Geographic Patterns of Extinction Compared with Simulations of Astrophysical Ionizing Radiation Damage,” Paleobiology 35 (2009): 311–20. Also see www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/gammaray_extinction.html.

  16. R. K. Bambach et al., “Origination, Extinction, and Mass Depletions of Marine Diversity,” Paleobiology 30, no. 4 (2004): 522–42.

  17. S. A. Young et al., “A Major Drop in Seawater 87Sr-86Sr during the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian): Links to Volcanism and Climate?” Geology 37, 10 (2009): 951–54.

  18. S. Finnegan et al., “The Magnitude and Duration of Late Ordovician-Early Silurian Glaciation,” Science 331, no. 6019 (2011): 903–906.

  19. S. Finnegan et al., “Climate Change and the Selective Signature of the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 18 (2012): 6829–34.

  CHAPTER X: TIKTAALIK AND THE INVASION OF THE LAND: 475–300 MA

  1. For a nice summary of these early tetrapods and their evolutionary positions, try this website: www.devoniantimes.org/opportunity/tetrapodsAnswer.html, and S. E. Pierce et al., “Three-Dimensional Limb Joint Mobility in the Early Tetrapod Ichthyostega,” Nature 486 (2012): 524–27, and P. E. Ahlberg et al., “The Axial Skeleton of the Devonian Tetrapod Ichthyostega,” Nature 437, no. 1 (2005): 137–40.

  2. J. A. Clack, Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012).

  3. E. B. Daeschler et al., “A Devonian Tetrapod-Like Fish and the Evolution of the Tetrapod Body Plan,” Nature 440, no. 7085 (2006): 757–63; J. P. Downs et al., “The Cranial Endoskeleton of Tiktaalik roseae,” Nature 455 (2008): 925–29; and a summary: P. E. Ahlberg and J. A. Clack, “A Firm Step from Water to Land,” Nature 440 (2006): 747–49.

  4. N. Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008); B. Holmes, “Meet Your Ancestor, the Fish That Crawled,” New Scientist, September 9, 2006.

  5. A. K. Behrensmeyer et al., eds., Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time: Evolutionary Paleoecology of Terrestrial Plants and Animals (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992); P. Kenrick and P. R. Crane, The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants. A Cladistic Study (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997).

  6. S. B. Hedges, “Molecular Evidence for Early Colonization of Land by Fungi and Plants,” Science 293 (2001): 1129–33.

  7. C. V. Rubenstein et al., “Early Middle Ordovician Evidence for Land Plants in Argentina (Eastern Gondwana),” New Phytologist 188, no. 2 (2010): 365–69. The press report can be found at www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1319904/Fossils-worlds-oldest-plants-unearthed-Argentina.html.

  8. J. T. Clarke et al., “Establishing a Time-Scale for Plant Evolution,” New Phytologist 192, no. 1 (2011): 266–30; M. E. Kotyk et al., “Morphologically Complex Plant Macrofossils from the Late Silurian of Arctic Canada,” American Journal of Botany 89 (2002): 1004–1013.

  9. Our own work on the insect and vertebrate invasions can be found in P. Ward et al., “Confirmation of Romer’s Gap as a Low Oxygen Interval Constraining the Timing of Initial Arthropod and Vertebrate Terrestrialization,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10, no. 45 (2006): 16818–22.

  CHAPTER XI: THE AGE OF ARTHROPODS: 350–300 MA

  1. Our own work on the insect and vertebrate invasions can be found in P. Ward et al., “Confirmation of Romer’s Gap as a Low Oxygen Interval Constraining the Timing of Initial Arthropod and Vertebrate Terrestrialization,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10, no. 45 (2006): 16818–22.

  2. R. Dudley, “Atmospheric Oxygen, Giant Paleozoic Insects and the Evolution of Aerial Locomotor Performance,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 201 (1988): 1043–50; R. Dudley, The Biomechanics of Insect Flight: Form, Function, Evolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); R. Dudley and P. Chai, “Animal Flight Mechanics in Physically Variable Gas Mixtures,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 199 (1996): 1881–85; also C. Gans et al., “Late Paleozoic Atmospheres and Biotic Evolution,” Historical Biology 13 (1991): 199–219l; J. Graham et al., “Implications of the Late Palaeozoic Oxygen Pulse for Physiology and Evolution,” Nature 375 (1995): 117–20; J. F. Harrison et al., “Atmospheric Oxygen Level and the Evolution of Insect Body Size,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 277 (2010): 1937–46.

  3. D. Flouday et al., “The Paleozoic Origin of Enzymatic Lignin Decomposition Reconstructed from 31 Fungal Genomes,” Science 336, no. 6089 (2012): 1715-19.

  4. Ibid.

  5. J. A. Raven, “Plant Responses to High O2 Concentrations: Relevance to Previous High O2 Episodes,” Global and Planetary Change 97 (1991): 19–38; and J. A. Raven et al., “The Influence of Natural and Experimental High O2 Concentrations on O2-Evolving Phototrophs,” Biological Reviews 69 (1994): 61–94.

  6. J. S. Clark et al., Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997); M. J. Cope et al., “Fossil Charcoals as Evidence of Past Atmospheric Composition,” Nature 283 (1980): 647–49; C. M. Belcher et al., “Baseline Intrinsic Flammability of Earth’s Ecosystems Estimated from Paleoatmospheric Oxygen over the Past 350 Million Years,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 52 (2010): 22448–53. Our own take on these experiments is that they are flawed by their failing to test using higher ignition temperatures. Even in low oxygen, a lightning strike causes initial ignition temperatures far higher than those used in this study.

  7. D. Beerling, The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth’s History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

  8. Q. Cai et al., “The Genome Sequence of the Ground Tit Pseudopodoces humilis Provides Insights into Its Adaptation to High Altitude,” Genome Biology 14, no. 3 (2013); www.geo.umass.edu/climate/quelccaya/diuca.html, and P. Ward, Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere (Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2006), with references therein to high altitude nesting.

  9. P. War
d, Out of Thin Air.

  10. M. Laurin and R. R. Reisz, “A Reevaluation of Early Amniote Phylogeny,” Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 113, no. 2 (1995): 165–223.

  11. P. Ward, Out of Thin Air.

  CHAPTER XII: THE GREAT DYING—ANOXIA AND GLOBAL STAGNATION: 252–250 MA

  1. C. Sidor et al., “Permian Tetrapods from the Sahara Show Climate-Controlled Endemism in Pangaea,” Nature 434 (2012): 886–89; S. Sahney and M. J. Benton, “Recovery from the Most Profound Mass Extinction of All Time,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 275 (2008): 759–65.

  2. The invertebrate fauna from Meishan, China, is proving to be the best-studied marine fossil record of this catastrophic event. There is now a large literature on this: S.-Z. Shen et al., “Calibrating the End-Permian Mass Extinction,” Science 334, no. 6061 (2011): 1367–72; Y. G. Jin et al., “Pattern of Marine Mass Extinction Near the Permian–Triassic Boundary in South China,” Science 289, no. 5478 (2000): 432–36.

  3. C. R. Marshall, “Confidence Limits in Stratigraphy,” in D. E. G. Briggs and P. R. Crowther, eds., Paleobiology II (Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, 2001), 542–45; see also the newer work by our Adelaide colleagues, C. J. A. Bradshaw et al., “Robust Estimates of Extinction Time in the Geological Record,” Quaternary Science Reviews 33 (2011): 14–19.

  4. “End-Permian Extinction Happened in 60,000 Years—Much Faster than Earlier Estimates, Study Says,” Phys.org, February 10, 2014. S. D. Burgess et al., “High-Precision Timeline for Earth’s Most Severe Extinction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 9 (2014): 3316–21.

  5. L. Becker et al., “Impact Event at the Permian–Triassic Boundary: Evidence from Extraterrestrial Noble Gases in Fullerenes,” Science 291 (2001): 1530–33.

  6. L. Becker et al., “Bedout: A Possible End-Permian Impact Crater Offshore of Northwestern Australia,” Science 304 (2004): 1469–76.

  7. K. Grice et al., “Photic Zone Euxinia During the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event,” Science 307 (2005): 706–09.

  8. C. Cao et al., “Biogeochemical Evidence for Euxinic Oceans and Ecological Disturbance Presaging the End-Permian Mass Extinction Event,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 281 (2009): 188–201.

  9. L. R. Kump and M. A. Arthur, “Interpreting Carbon-Isotope Excursions: Carbonates and Organic Matter,” Chemical Geology 161 (1999): 181–98.

  10. K. M. Meyer and L. R. Kump, “Oceanic Euxinia in Earth History: Causes and Consequences,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 36 (2008): 251–88.

  11. T. J. Algeo and E. D. Ingall, “Sedimentary Corg:P Ratios, Paleoceanography, Ventilation, and Phanerozoic Atmospheric pO2,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 256 (2007): 130–55; C. Winguth and A. M. E. Winguth, “Simulating Permian-Triassic Oceanic Anoxia Distribution: Implications for Species Extinction and Recovery,” Geology 40 (2012): 127–30; S. Xie et al., “Changes in the Global Carbon Cycle Occurred as Two Episodes during the Permian-Triassic Crisis,” Geology 35 (2007): 1083–86; S. Xie et al., “Two Episodes of Microbial Change Coupled with Permo-Triassic Faunal Mass Extinction,” Nature 434 (2005): 494–97; G. Luo et al., “Stepwise and Large-Magnitude Negative Shift in d13Ccarb Preceded the Main Marine Mass Extinction of the Permian-Triassic Crisis Interval,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 299 (2011): 70–82; G. A. Brennecka et al., “Rapid Expansion of Oceanic Anoxia Immediately before the End-Permian Mass Extinction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (2011): 17631–34.

  12. P. Ward et al., “Abrupt and Gradual Extinction Among Late Permian Land Vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa,” Science 307 (2005): 709–14; C. Sidor et al., “Permian Tetrapods from the Sahara Show Climate-Controlled Endemism in Pangaea”; and S. Sahney and M. J. Benton, “Recovery from the Most Profound Mass Extinction of All Time.”

  13. R. B. Huey and P. D. Ward, “Hypoxia, Global Warming, and Terrestrial Late Permian Extinctions,” Science, 308, no. 5720 (2005): 398–401.

  14. P. Ward et al., “Abrupt and Gradual Extinction Among Late Permian Land Vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa.”

  CHAPTER XIII: THE TRIASSIC EXPLOSION: 252–200 MA

  1. The high heat in the lowest Triassic strata is a major confirmation of the greenhouse extinction model.

  2. S. Schoepfer et al., “Cessation of a Productive Coastal Upwelling System in the Panthalassic Ocean at the Permian–Triassic Boundary,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 313–14 (2012): 181–88.

  3. The history of reefs was looked at in our chapter on the Ordovician. George Stanley remains the primary expertise. G. D. Stanley Jr., ed., Paleobiology and Biology of Corals, Paleontological Society Papers, vol. 1 (Boulder, CO: The Paleontological Society, 1996), and a very accessible work on many aspects of modern as well as ancient reefs: G. Stanley Jr., “Corals and Reefs: Crises, Collapse and Change,” presented as a Paleontological Society short course at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Minneapolis, MN, October 8, 2011.

  4. P. C. Sereno, “The Origin and Evolution of Dinosaurs,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 25 (1997): 435–89; P. C. Sereno et al., “Primitive Dinosaur Skeleton from Argentina and the Early Evolution of Dinosauria,” Nature 361 (1993): 64–66; P. C. Sereno and A. B. Arcucci, “Dinosaurian Precursors from the Middle Triassic of Argentina: Lagerpeton chanarensis,” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13 (1994): 385–99. Other important works on early dinosaur and other vertebrate evolution: M. J. Benton, “Dinosaur Success in the Triassic: A Noncompetitive Ecological Model,” Quarterly Review of Biology 58 (1983): 29–55; M. J. Benton, “The Origin of the Dinosaurs,” in C. A.-P. Salense, ed., III Jornadas Internacionales sobre Paleontología de Dinosaurios y su Entorno (Burgos, Spain: Salas de los Infantes, 2006), 11–19; A. P. Hunt et al., “Late Triassic Dinosaurs from the Western United States,” Geobios 31 (1998): 511–31; R. B. Irmis et al., “A Late Triassic Dinosauromorph Assemblage from New Mexico and the Rise of Dinosaurs,” Science 317 (2007): 358–61; R. B. Irmis et al., “Early Ornithischian Dinosaurs: The Triassic Record,” Historical Biology 19 (2007):, 3–22; S. J. Nesbitt et al., “A Critical Re-evaluation of the Late Triassic Dinosaur Taxa of North America,” Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 5 (2007): 209–43; S. J. Nesbitt et al., “Ecologically Distinct Dinosaurian Sister Group Shows Early Diversification of Ornithodira,” Nature 464 (2010): 95–98.

  5. D. R. Carrier, “The Evolution of Locomotor Stamina in Tetrapods: Circumventing a Mechanical Constraint,” Paleobiology 13 (1987): 326–41.

  6. E. Schachner, R. Cieri, J. Butler, G. Farmer, “Unidirectional Pulmonary Airflow Patterns in the Savannah Monitor Lizard,” Nature 506, no. 7488 (2013): 367–70.

  7. A. F. Bennett, “Exercise Performance of Reptiles,” in J. H. Jones et al., eds., Comparative Vertebrate Exercise Physiology: Phyletic Adaptations, Advances in Veterinary Science and Comparative Medicine, vol. 3 (New York: Academic Press, 1994), 113–38.

  8. N. Bardet, “Stratigraphic Evidence for the Extinction of the Ichthyosaurs,” Terra Nova 4 (1992): 649–56. See also C. W. A. Andrews, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay. Based on the Leeds Collection in the British Museum (Natural History), London. Part II (London: 1910): 1–205, as well as the wonderful new summary by R. Motani, “The Evolution of Marine Reptiles,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 2, no. 2 (2009): 224–35.

  9. P. Ward et al., “Sudden Productivity Collapse Associated with the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Mass Extinction,” Science 292 (2001): 115–19; P. Ward et al., “Isotopic Evidence Bearing on Late Triassic Extinction Events, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, and Implications for the Duration and Cause of the Triassic-Jurassic Mass Extinction,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 224, nos. 3–4: 589–600. Our later work in Nevada and back in the Queen Charlottes expanded on this isotopic anomaly. K. H. Williford et al., “An Extended Stable Organic Carbon Isotope Record Across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary in the Queen
Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 244, nos. 1–4 (2006): 290–96.

  10. P. E. Olsen et al., “Ascent of Dinosaurs Linked to an Iridium Anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary,” Science 296, no. 5571 (2002): 1305–07.

  11. J. P. Hodych and G. R. Dunning, “Did the Manicougan Impact Trigger End-of-Triassic Mass Extinction?” Geology 20, no. 1 (1992): 51–54; L. H. Tanner et al., “Assessing the Record and Causes of Late Triassic Extinctions,” Earth-Science Reviews 65, nos. 1–2 (2004): 103–39; J. H. Whiteside et al., “Compound-Specific Carbon Isotopes from Earth’s Largest Flood Basalt Eruptions Directly Linked to the End-Triassic Mass Extinction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 15 (2010): 6721–25; M. H. L. Deenen et al., “A New Chronology for the End-Triassic Mass Extinction,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 291, no. 1–4 (2010): 113–25.

  CHAPTER XIV: DINOSAUR HEGEMONY IN A LOW-OXYGEN WORLD: 230–180 MA

  1. And just as we pay homage to Bob Bakker, no student of the dinosaurs can do without the magnificent The Dinosauria by D. B. Weishampel et al., (Oakland: University of California Press, 2004). Heavy, hefty, and expensive, it is the definitive treatise still in 2014.

  2. There is now an extensive literature on air sacs in dinosaurs. Bob Bakker was the first to point it out, and the work of Gregory Paul greatly expanded on this hypothesis.

  3. D. Fastovsky and D. Weishampel, The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2005).

  4. P. O’Connor and L. Claessens, “Basic Avian Pulmonary Design and Flow-Through Ventilation in Non-Avian Theropod Dinosaurs,” Nature 436, no. 7048 (2005): 253–56, but see the contrary view of J. A. Ruben et al., “Pulmonary Function and Metabolic Physiology of Theropod Dinosaurs,” Science 283, no. 5401 (1999): 514–16.