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 Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Coxall, H. K. Articles by Zachos, J. C. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Pelagic evolution and environmental recovery after the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction

¹ Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02874, USA
² Earth Sciences Department, University of California–Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA

The evolutionary recovery of planktic foraminifera from the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction was closely linked to recovery of the marine carbon system. Both the evolutionary recovery and the biogeochemical recovery occurred in two stages. The second stage of evolutionary radiation peaked nearly four million years after the extinction, immediately after the abrupt final recovery of the organic flux to deep waters. The timing of these events suggests that the final postextinction recovery of planktic foraminiferal diversity was directly contingent on the final recovery of the marine carbon cycle. This second radiation was defined by the diversification of tropical photosymbiotic forms that dominated low- and mid-latitude assemblages long into the Eocene. We hypothesize that this diversification was a result of the reappearance of oligotrophic oceans as the organic flux from the surface ocean to deep water fully recovered from the mass extinction.

Key Words: Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary • extinction recovery • carbon system • organic flux • pelagic ecosystem • planktic foraminifera • evolution

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. M. Fuqua, T. J. Bralower, M. A. Arthur, and M. E. Patzkowsky Evolution of Calcareous Nannoplankton and the Recovery of Marine Food Webs After the Cretaceous-Paleocene Mass Extinction Palaios, April 1, 2008; 23(4): 185 - 194. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. Thomas Cenozoic mass extinctions in the deep sea: What perturbs the largest habitat on Earth? Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 424(0): 1 - 23. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. J. Lehrmann, J. Ramezani, S. A. Bowring, M. W. Martin, P. Montgomery, P. Enos, J. L. Payne, M. J. Orchard, W. Hongmei, and W. Jiayong Timing of recovery from the end-Permian extinction: Geochronologic and biostratigraphic constraints from south China Geology, December 1, 2006; 34(12): 1053 - 1056. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Wilf, C. C. Labandeira, K. R. Johnson, and B. Ellis Decoupled plant and insect diversity after the end-Cretaceous extinction. Science, August 25, 2006; 313(5790): 1112 - 1115. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]