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Long-term geological processes are usually described with curves reflecting continuous changes in the characteristic parameters through the geological history, and such curves can be employed directly for recognition of episodic (relatively long-term) events linked to these changes. The episodic events can be classified into several categories acco...
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Context 1
... is why it is sensible to judge them as episodic events. Their appearance on the "classical" curve ( Fig. 5) permits making some interesting conclusions about their essence (Table 2). ...Context 2
... eT event has analogs in the Paleozoic biotic evolution, but its strength was really big for the MesozoiceCenozoic evolution. Provisionally, it is suggested to term these two events (P/ T and eT) as quasi-anomalous (Table 2). Generally, the analysis shows that the Big Five mass extinctions were not absolutely unusual events, but, in contrast, these were the other comparable events in the Phanerozoic. ...Context 3
... established similarities prove the strong influence of the Early Toarcian mass extinction, which resulted in the "restart" of the brachiopod radiation. Interestingly, the decreasing character was also established above to the end-Triassic and Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinctions (Table 2). It is possible to hypothesize that the Mesozoic evolutionary "forces" were so strong that the mass extinctions could trigger the only reestablishments of the radiation from the lower point, but not trend stabilizations or transformations. ...Similar publications
Recent eustatic reconstructions allow for reconsidering the relationships between the fifteen Paleozoic–Mesozoic mass extinctions (mid-Cambrian, end-Ordovician, Llandovery/Wenlock, Late Devonian, Devonian/Carboniferous, mid-Carboniferous, end-Guadalupian, end-Permian, two mid-Triassic, end-Triassic, Early Jurassic, Jurassic/Cretaceous, Late Cretace...
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... The scope of the present paper is to undertake a reconsideration of the relationships between the fifteen Paleozoic-Mesozoic mass extinctions (including all the so-called "Big Five") with the forementioned new eustatic reconstructions. It appears urgent to shift from simplistic comparisons between the global sea-level rises/falls and the major episodes of biodiversity losses towards more advanced analytical approaches like an episodic event analysis [38]. This allows for a new, broader vision of these relationships. ...
... Analytical procedures of this study follow the principles of the analysis of episodic events [38]. Eustatic changes are typical events of this kind. ...
... On the other hand, episodic events may coincide with the trends in different ways, and these may be ordinary, facilitative, transformative, stabilizing, increasing, decreasing, and interruptive events ( Figure 2). Importantly, mass extinctions are also episodic events [38], which are always negative (biodiversity drops) and anomalous (very high extinction rate and outstanding biodiversity drops). Although some (if not all) mass extinctions were short-term events, and their duration was less than that of the considered eustatic events, this is not too big a limitation because this study emphasizes the correspondence of mass extinctions to eustatic tendencies, not particular, short-term fluctuations. ...
Recent eustatic reconstructions allow for reconsidering the relationships between the fifteen Paleozoic–Mesozoic mass extinctions (mid-Cambrian, end-Ordovician, Llandovery/Wenlock, Late Devonian, Devonian/Carboniferous, mid-Carboniferous, end-Guadalupian, end-Permian, two mid-Triassic, end-Triassic, Early Jurassic, Jurassic/Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, and end-Cretaceous extinctions) and global sea-level changes. The relationships between eustatic rises/falls and period-long eustatic trends are examined. Many eustatic events at the mass extinction intervals were not anomalous. Nonetheless, the majority of the considered mass extinctions coincided with either interruptions or changes in the ongoing eustatic trends. It cannot be excluded that such interruptions and changes could have facilitated or even triggered biodiversity losses in the marine realm.
... The well-studied Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) is one of the five major mass extinction events of Earth's history (about 65 Ma ago). Ruban (2018) proposed a classification model for the events on the geologic records and concluded that the K-Pg represents the only anomalous event on the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve, where other minor mass extinctions may represent episodic events, where the marine biodiversity has naturally fluctuated. The demise of non-avian dinosaurs marked this terrible crisis leaving big questions on its mechanism and causes. ...
... Raup and Sepkoski (1984) and Sepkoski (1996) reported that about 20% of the marine families and genera became extinct by this period. Brachiopods were strongly affected (Ruban, 2018). ...
Enigmatic catastrophic events, involving mass extinction of life forms, have been recorded several times in
the Earth history. In many cases, the causes and mechanisms of these major and minor mass extinctions can
be traced via the fossil record. A synthesis of the available information is herein made on the major catastrophic events through Earth history to understand the processes in the past and present with speculation into
the future. The selective nature of major mass extinctions from the fossil record indicates the vanishing of s
pecific taxa and the survival of others. The sudden extinction of organisms is almost accompanied by a grad
ual disappearance of other forms, thus excluding any single cause for the killing mechanism. Consequently,
the multiple causes’ scenario is the plausible mechanism responsible for the vanishing of biota through the
history of the fossil record. On the other hand, the recovery of biota after mass extinctions is also an intrigui
ng phenomenon, in which some groups had rapid recovery whereas others took a long time for a revival. B
ased on multiple pieces of evidence from Africa, the end Permian extinction and the extinction of some Qu
aternary megafauna may be related to severe drought. In addition, the current mass extinction is progressive
ly underway; arising from multiple causes and mainly related to anthropogenic activities, widespread diseas
es, as well as the possibility of extraterrestrial impacts. Reevaluation of the magnitude of the extinction eve
nt is urgently needed to judge if these extinctions represent natural episodic fluctuation of the biodiversity c
urve or unexpected catastrophe. Analyses of invertebrate occurrence data revealed that taxa originated duri
ng stressful crises intervals have a wider geographic range size and lower extinction rates. Moreover, specie
s durations, geographic range, and diversity are influencing each other. In addition, the ecological traits of a
species may control their extinction pattern and recovery speed-limit. Furthermore, the wide geographical
distribution provides potentially to survive mass extinctions. Therefore, narrower geographic-range taxa are
facing higher extinction risk.
... The late Homerian to Ludlow time interval has recently enjoyed considerable interest, as it has been shown in a wide range of studies (beginning in the early nineteen-eighties) that this relatively short span of the Silurian was characterized by world-wide turnovers of biota coupled with some of the strongest positive carbon isotopic excursions and other biogeochemical perturbations, as well as probable significant sea level changes, throughout the whole Paleozoic (Aldridge et al., 1993;Calner, 2008;Calner and Jeppsson, 2003;Calner et al., 2012;Cramer et al., 2006;Eriksson et al., 2009;Frýda and Manda, 2013;Jarochowska and Munnecke, 2016;Jeppsson, 1990Jeppsson, , 1998Jeppsson, 2005;Jeppsson and Aldridge, 2000;Jeppsson and Calner, 2002;Jeppsson et al., 2012;Jeppsson et al., 1994;Kozłowski, 2015;Lehnert et al., 2007a;Lehnert et al., 2007b;Loydell, 1998;Loydell et al., 2001;Martma et al., 2005;Radzevičius et al., 2016;Radzevičius et al., 2014b;Ruban, 2017;Samtleben et al., 2000;Spiridonov, 2017;Spiridonov et al., 2017a;Sullivan et al., 2016;Štorch et al., 2014;Talent et al., 1993;Zenkner and Kozłowski, 2017). These significant Earth system changes that took place during the late Wenlock to Ludlow constitute a larger pattern of general high-magnitude, possibly quasiperiodic, perturbations in the global carbon cycle, climate, oceanography and macroevolutionary rates which characterize the whole Silurian period (Cooper et al., 2014;Crampton et al., 2016;Crampton et al., 2018;Emsbo, 2017;Jeppsson, 1997;Lehnert et al., 2010;Lenton et al., 2016;Makhnach et al., 2018;Racki et al., 2012;Spiridonov et al., 2015;Spiridonov et al., 2016;Trotter et al., 2016;Vandenbroucke et al., 2015;Žigaitė et al., 2010) and possibly most of the Paleozoic, which was characterized by much more volatile macroevolutionary dynamics than the rest of the Phanerozoic (Gilinsky, 1994;Lieberman and Melott, 2013;Newman and Eble, 1999), as well as by abundant high-magnitude δ 13 C excursions (Bachan et al., 2017;Saltzman, 2005;Saltzman and Thomas, 2012). ...
The Homerian to Ludfordian interval of the mid to late Silurian Period was a time of significant
changes in conodont communities, global climate, oceanographic patterns and biogeochemical cycles.
The Mulde and the Lau events are preeminent examples of globally recognized conodont extinction
episodes from this interval in Earth’s history. The Silurian Baltic Basin is the most suitable
locality, globally, for studying these perturbations to the ocean-atmosphere system, since there is an
extensive record of conodont taxa ocurrences, their communities, and their environments spanning
across shore-face to open-ocean settings. In this study, we present new conodont and �13C data
from the upper Homerian to Ludlow interval from two core sections – G˙eluva-99 and G˙eluva-118,
representing shelfal environments, and the numerical conodont data from the Vidukl˙e-61 section,
from deep-water settings, and compare them with patterns of conodont diversity change, as revealed
in the data-rich Milaiciai-103 core section. For this purpose, we explored the stratigraphically tied
time series of conodont diversity changes employing recurrence and cross-recurrence plots – the
binary similarity matrices that are used for deciphering complex spatial and temporal dynamic
patterns. The cross-recurrence plots were used as a means of synchronizing the geological sections
by applying dynamic time warping and the newly described moving window median recurrence
point search algorithms. The results revealed that the conodont community compositional data are
sufficiently temporally and spatially coherent to be reasonably used for synchronizing geological
records. Moreover, the sudden state transitions detected in the cross-recurrence plots suggest that
the Lau Event was of great importance for conodont community evolution in the studied time slice.
... Representatives of the trace fossil Thalassinoides have been found in the Marmarica Formation (Fig. 7c), and their relative diversity and stratigraphically-controlled variation provide unique opportunity for improvement of the knowledge this ichnogenus (El-Sabbagh et al., 2017). Orabi et al. (2015) documented the larger benthic foraminiferal turnover at the EoceneeOligocene transition in the Siwa Oasis and concluded about its relevance to volcanismtriggered warming, not glaciation-related cooling as though to be have occurred globally (Zachos et al., 2001;Lear et al., 2008;Ladant et al., 2015;Passchier et al., 2017;Ruban, 2018). This makes the sequence with the established foraminiferal changes of international importance. ...
Discovering new natural resources is important for sustainable development of remote oases in arid
regions of Africa and the Middle East. The first comprehensive assessment of geological heritage of the
Siwa Oasis in the northwestern part of Egypt is based on field inventory of potentially unique geological
features and analysis of literature data. Comparison to similar features in the other parts of Egypt and the
world, including the Russian South, is essential to evaluate the uniqueness of the described geological
phenomena. A total of nine geological heritage types are established in the Siwa Oasis. These include
stratigraphical, palaeontological, sedimentary, palaeogeographical, hydrological and hydrogeological,
geothermal, pedological, geomorphological, and economical types. The most high-ranked are features
constituting sedimentary, palaeogeographical, and hydrological and hydrogeological types. The former
can be found in the old Shali town built from evaporite stones experienced diagenetic changes, and the
latter is local manifestation of the EoceneeOligocene palaeoenvironmental transition different from the
global cooling trend. Additionally, saline lakes and pools, as well as stratigraphical sections, landforms,
and some other features demonstrate certain uniqueness. A series of geosites are identified in the oasis
and vicinities. Taken together, the geological heritage of the Siwa Oasis is significant for conservation and
exploitation for research, education, and tourism purposes. It is suggested that geological tourism there
should be combined with archaeological, industrial, and "ordinary" to become efficient and to contribute
to the local sustainable development. Examples from the Russian South (the Big Tambukan and Big
Yashalta lakes) permit to realize that the consideration of salt and therapeutic mud resource indicates on
the higher value of the discussed geological heritage features of the Siwa Oasis. Moreover, this resource,
which is of big uniqueness itself, can contribute substantially to tourism development on the basis of
unique geological phenomena.
... It peaked in the Pliensbachian; then there was a minor, albeit long, diversity lowstand followed by rapid diversification that culminated during the Bathonian; a gradual decrease in the number of genera lasted until the end of the period (Fig. 1). The Toarcian-Aalenian diversity minimum can be explained by the influence of the early Toarcian mass extinction (Hallam, 1986; Little & Benton, 1995; Harries & Little, 1999;Wignall et al., 2005;Caswell et al., 2009;Baeza-Carratalá et al., 2016, 2017, 2018Vörös et al., 2016;Caswell & Frid, 2017;Ruban, 2018). However, it is questionable whether the mass extinction was the sole cause of such a long diversity lowstand; probably, some other factor(s) was (were) also responsible for the latter. ...
... It peaked in the Pliensbachian; then there was a minor, albeit long, diversity lowstand followed by rapid diversification that culminated during the Bathonian; a gradual decrease in the number of genera lasted until the end of the period (Fig. 1). The Toarcian-Aalenian diversity minimum can be explained by the influence of the early Toarcian mass extinction (Hallam, 1986; Little & Benton, 1995; Harries & Little, 1999;Wignall et al., 2005;Caswell et al., 2009;Baeza-Carratalá et al., 2016, 2017, 2018Vörös et al., 2016;Caswell & Frid, 2017;Ruban, 2018). However, it is questionable whether the mass extinction was the sole cause of such a long diversity lowstand; probably, some other factor(s) was (were) also responsible for the latter. ...
Possible plate tectonic controls on faunal diversity dynamics have been discussed in the geological literature for around 50 years. The new model of plate tectonic processes is here linked to Jurassic generic diversity (simple α-diversity) of brachiopods. This comparison offers three observations, four hypotheses and three unresolved issues. Most importantly, changes in the global plate root mean square speed coincided with brachiopod diversity dynamics, which can be explained hypothetically by either environmental disturbance triggered by more active plate motion or activity of any process (such as eustasy) tied to plate tectonic mechanisms and with an impact on marine benthic communities. It is also established that global generic diversity dynamics of brachiopods during the Jurassic coincided with the regional picture as established for the Northern Caucasus and the Swiss Jura Alps; this coincidence is difficult to explain with regard to plate tectonics. These and other speculative considerations do not clarify the role of the plate tectonic factor in Jurassic generic diversity dynamics of brachiopods, and, thus, they indicate important issues for further research.
The sedimentology and taphonomy of in-situ fossils from earliest Triassic strata (Induan) in the southern Karoo Basin of South Africa is presented as evidence for episodes of drought-induced mass death of the resident tetrapods. Abundant skeletons are preserved in a 2 m-thick tabular silty-sandstone capping a multi-storeyed low-sinuosity channel sandstone interpreted as a wide shallow channel that became progressively abandoned, with more ephemeral flow regime than in the underlying channels and subjected to intermittent flows of low-density sediment-laden floodwaters. Stratigraphic and planimetric distribution of 170 in-situ tetrapod fossils shows several clusters of up to eight closely-spaced articulated Lystrosaurus skeletons preserved in prone and spread-eagled body position. These are interpreted as drought-stricken carcasses that collapsed and died of starvation in and alongside dried-up water sources. Two of the specimens display an unusual micritic envelope with a distinctive pustular texture interpreted as permineralised mummified skin indicative of rapid desiccation after death. Bonebeds of disarticulated bones of multiple juvenile Lystrosaurus occur in shallow depressions within the rubified mudstones. Layering of different skeletal elements suggests some hydraulic sorting but the initial aggregation was likely a behavioural response to drought. Osteohistology of spread-eagled Lystrosaurus (L. declivis and L. murrayi species) skeletons show that they represent early juvenile stage which is in accordance with previous findings that throughout Pangaea Early Triassic Lystrosaurus died relatively young due to environmental stressors. Our results support the hyperthermal hypothesis that ~252 Mya increased continental aridity, already a consequence of the coalescence of Pangaea, was critically intensified by volcanogenic greenhouse gasses from the Siberian traps. We propose that in the aftermath of the End-Permian mass extinction event, a succession of climatic drying episodes orchestrated a series of fully-functioning terrestrial ecosystems that were markedly different to those of the pre-extinction, and likely had a profound and lasting influence on the evolution of tetrapods.
A comprehensive study of the Earth System and its different environments requires understanding of multi-dimensional data acquired with a multitude of different sensors or produced by various models. Here we present a component-wise scalable web-based framework for simultaneous visualisation of multiple data sources. It helps contextualise mixed observation and simulation data in time and space. This work is an extended version of the conference paper (Buck et al., 2021).
