The Mesozoic marine revolution (MMR) refers to the increase in shell-crushing (durophagous) and boring predation in benthic organisms throughout the Mesozoic era (251 Mya to 66 Mya), along with bulldozing and sediment remodelling in marine habitats. [1] The term was first coined by Geerat J. Vermeij, [2] who based his work on that of Steven M. Stanley. [3] [4] [5] While the MMR was initially restricted to the Cretaceous (145 Mya to 66 Mya), more recent studies have suggested that the beginning of this ecological arms race extends as far back as the Triassic, [6] [7] [8] with the MMR now being considered to have started in the Anisian [9] or the Aalenian. [10] It is an important transition between the Palaeozoic evolutionary fauna and the Modern evolutionary fauna that occurred throughout the Mesozoic.
The Mesozoic marine revolution was not the first bout of increased predation pressure; that occurred around the end of the Ordovician. [11] There is some evidence of adaptation to durophagy during the Palaeozoic, particularly in crinoids. [12]
The Mesozoic marine revolution was driven by the evolution of shell-crushing behaviour among Mesozoic marine predators, the technique being perfected in the Late Cretaceous. This forced shelled marine invertebrates to develop defences against such predation or be wiped out. The consequences of this can be seen in many invertebrates today. Such predators are thought to include: Triassic placodonts, Triassic ichthyosaurs, Triassic omphalosaurids, Triassic plesiosaurs, Jurassic pliosaurs, Late Cretaceous mosasaurs and Cretaceous ptychodontoid sharks. [2] Many gastropods also evolved to feed on prey with shells. [13] However, because most durophagous predators were generalists, their effect on anti-predator shell architecture has been viewed by some as diffuse and not as extensive as other authors have suggested. [14]
It is thought that the break-up of Pangaea and the formation of new oceans throughout the Mesozoic brought together previously isolated marine communities, forcing them to compete and adapt. The increased shelf space caused by sea-level rise and a hyper-greenhouse climate provided more iterations and chances to evolve, resulting in increasing diversity. [2]
The evolution of angiosperms in the Cretaceous enhanced the hydrological cycling, speeding up rates of weathering and nutrient flow into the oceans, which has been cited as a possible driver of the MMR. [15]
Another proposal is the evolution of hermit crabs. These exploit the shells of dead gastropods, effectively doubling the life-span of the shell. This allows durophagous predators nearly twice the prey, making it a viable niche to exploit. [2]
The net result of the Mesozoic marine revolution was a change from the sedentary epifaunal lifestyle of the Palaeozoic evolutionary fauna to the infaunal/planktonic mode of life of the modern fauna. [5] Non-mobile types that failed to re-attach to their substrate (such as brachiopods) when removed were picked off as easy prey, whereas those that could hide from predation or be mobile enough to escape had an evolutionary advantage. [2] Per capita mean metabolic rates among marine gastropods living in shallow water increased by approximately 150% from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. [16]
Three major trends can be associated with this: [17]
Major casualties of the Mesozoic marine revolution include: sessile crinoids, gastropods, brachiopods and epifaunal bivalves.[ citation needed ]
Benthic gastropods were heavily preyed upon throughout the Mesozoic Marine Revolution, the weaker shelled types being pushed out of the benthic zone into more isolated habitats. The Palaeozoic archaeogastropods were subsequently replaced by neritaceans, mesogastropods and neogastropods. [2] The former typically have symmetrical, umbilicate shells that are mechanically weaker than the latter. These lack an umbilicus and also developed the ability to modify the interior of their shells, allowing them to develop sculptures on their exterior to act as defence against predators. [2]
Another development among Muricidae was the ability to bore through shells and consume prey. These marks (while relatively rare) generally occur on sessile invertebrates, implying that they put pressure on Palaeozoic-type faunas during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. [19]
The Mesozoic Marine Revolution heavily affected the crinoids, making the majority of their forms extinct. Their sessile nature made them easy prey for durophagous predators since the Triassic. [9] Survivors (such as the comatulids) could swim or crawl, behaved nocturnally or had autotomy (the ability to shed limbs in defence). [12]
The shift in the range of sessile stalked crinoids during the late Mesozoic from the shallow shelf to habitats further offshore suggests that they were forced by increased predation pressure in shallow water to migrate to a deep water refuge environment where predation pressure was lower and their mode of life more viable. [20] This migration was not globally synchronous and delayed in the Southern Hemisphere; it did not occur until the Late Eocene in Australia and Antarctica, and until the Early Miocene in Zealandia. [21]
Brachiopods, the dominant benthic organism of the Palaeozoic, suffered badly during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Their sessile foot-attached nature made them easy prey to durophagous predators. [2] The fact that they could not re-attach to a substrate if an attack failed meant their chances of survival were slim. Unlike bivalves, brachiopods never adapted to an infaunal habit (excluding lingulids) and so remained vulnerable throughout the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. As a result of increased predation pressure on top of heightened competition with bivalves, brachiopods became a minor component of most marine faunas by the Cenozoic despite their incredible diversity and abundance during the Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic. [22]
Bivalves adapted more readily than the brachiopods to this ecological transition. Many bivalves adopted an infaunal habit, using their siphons to gather nutrients from the sediment-water interface while remaining safe. [2] [5] Corbulids developed layers of conchiolin within their shells to better resist predation. [23] Others still, like Pecten, developed the ability to jump a short distance away from predators by contracting their valves.
Like brachiopods, epifaunal varieties of bivalves were preyed upon heavily. Among epifaunal types (such as mussels and oysters), the ability to fuse to the substrate made them more difficult to consume for smaller predators. Epifaunal bivalves were preyed on heavily before the Norian but extinction rates diminish after this. [17]
Echinoids do not suffer major predation (save for general infaunalisation) during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution but it is clear from bromalites (fossilised ‘vomit’) that cidaroids were consumed by predators. [24] Echinoids radiate into predatory niches and are thought to have perfected coral grazing in the Late Cretaceous. [2] Cidaroids too may have contributed to the downfall of the crinoids. [9]
Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their juvenile form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or comatulids, are members of the largest crinoid order, Comatulida. Crinoids are echinoderms in the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes the starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. They live in both shallow water and in depths as great as 9,000 meters (30,000 ft).
Placodus was a genus of marine reptiles belonging to the order Placodontia, which swam in the shallow seas of the middle Triassic period. Fossils of Placodus have been found in Central Europe and China.
Globidens is an extinct genus of mosasaurid oceanic lizard classified as part of the Globidensini tribe in the Mosasaurinae subfamily.
Conulariida are an extinct group of medusozoan cnidarians known from fossils spanning from the latest Ediacaran up until the Late Triassic. They are almost exclusively known from their hard external structures, which were pyramidal in shape and made up of numerous lamellae.
The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is drawn into the mantle cavity and over the gill and which serves as a chemoreceptor to locate food. Siphonal canals allow for active transport of water to sensory organs inside the shell. Organisms without siphonal canals in their shells rely on passive or diffuse transport or water into their shell. Those with siphonal canals have a direct inhalant stream of water that interacts with sensory organs to detect concentration and direction of a stimulus, such as food or mates. In certain groups of carnivorous snails, where the siphon is particularly long, the structure of the shell has been modified in order to house and protect the soft structure of the siphon. Thus the siphonal canal is a semi-tubular extension of the aperture of the shell through which the siphon is extended when the animal is active.
The small shelly fauna, small shelly fossils (SSF), or early skeletal fossils (ESF) are mineralized fossils, many only a few millimetres long, with a nearly continuous record from the latest stages of the Ediacaran to the end of the Early Cambrian Period. They are very diverse, and there is no formal definition of "small shelly fauna" or "small shelly fossils". Almost all are from earlier rocks than more familiar fossils such as trilobites. Since most SSFs were preserved by being covered quickly with phosphate and this method of preservation is mainly limited to the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian periods, the animals that made them may actually have arisen earlier and persisted after this time span.
Pleurotomariidae, common name the "slit snails", is a family of large marine gastropods in the superfamily Pleurotomarioidea of the subclass Vetigastropoda. This family is a very ancient lineage; there were numerous species in the geological past. The genus includes several hundred fossil forms, mostly Paleozoic. It is one of the oldest gastropod families, commencing in the Cambrian.
Hybodontiformes, commonly called hybodonts, are an extinct group of shark-like chondrichthyans, which existed from the late Devonian to the Late Cretaceous. They form the group of Elasmobranchii closest to neoselachians, the clade of modern sharks and rays. Hybodonts were named and are distinguished based on their conical tooth shape. They are also noted for the presence of a spine on each of their two dorsal fins. They were abundant in marine and freshwater environments during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, but were rare in open marine environments by the end of the Jurassic, having been largely replaced by modern sharks, though they were still common in freshwater and marginal marine habitats. They survived until the end of the Cretaceous, before going extinct.
Claraia is an extinct genus of scallop-like bivalve molluscs that lived from the Capitanian stage of the Late Permian to the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic, 266-237 million years ago. Fossils have been found worldwide in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. These are common fossils subsequent to the Permian-Triassic boundary, suggesting that the genus experienced rapid diversification during and after the Permian–Triassic extinction event, around 251.9 million years ago, making it a Disaster taxon
The origin of the brachiopods is uncertain; they either arose from reduction of a multi-plated tubular organism, or from the folding of a slug-like organism with a protective shell on either end. Since their Cambrian origin, the phylum rose to a Palaeozoic dominance, but dwindled during the Mesozoic.
The concept of the three great evolutionary faunas of marine animals from the Cambrian to the present was introduced by Jack Sepkoski in 1981 using factor analysis of the fossil record. An evolutionary fauna typically displays an increase in biodiversity following a logistic curve followed by extinctions.
The Luning Formation is a geologic formation in Nevada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Triassic period.
The Globidensini or Globidentatini are a tribe of mosasaurine mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the tribe, known as "globidensins" or "globidensine mosasaurs", have been recovered from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The tribe contains the genera Globidens, Carinodens, Igdamanosaurus, Harranasaurus and Xenodens. Features of the maxilla and digits make the placement of Carinodens and Xenodens in the tribe uncertain; some researchers have suggested that they may be more appropriately placed in the Mosasaurini.
This list 2019 in paleomalacology is a list of new taxa of ammonites and other fossil cephalopods, as well as fossil gastropods, bivalves and other molluscs that are scheduled to be described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to molluscan paleontology that are scheduled to occur in the year 2019.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2018.
Endoxocrinus parrae is a species of stalked crinoids of the family Isselicrinidae. It is the most commonly found isocrinine species in west Atlantic Ocean.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2019.
Elizabeth M. Harper (Liz) is an evolutionary biologist known for her work on molluscs. She is an honorary fellow of the British Antarctic Survey and was accorded the title of Honorary Professor by the University of Cambridge in 2019.
This list of fossil molluscs described in 2022 is a list of new taxa of fossil molluscs that were described during the year 2022, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to molluscan paleontology that occurred in 2022.
This list of fossil molluscs described in 2023 is a list of new taxa of fossil molluscs that were described during the year 2023, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to molluscan paleontology that occurred in 2023.