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Early bursts of diversification defined the faunal colonization of land

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0175 (2017) Cite this article

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Abstract

The colonization of land was one of the major events in Earth history, leading to the expansion of life and laying the foundations for the modern biosphere. We examined trace fossils, the record of the activities of past life, to understand how animals diversify both behaviourally and ecologically when colonizing new habitats. The faunal invasion of land was preceded by excursions of benthic animals into very shallow, marginal marine environments during the latest Ediacaran period and culminated in widespread colonization of non-marine niches by the end of the Carboniferous period. Trace fossil evidence for the colonization of new environments shows repeated early burst patterns of maximal ichnodisparity (the degree of difference among basic trace fossil architectural designs), ecospace occupation and level of ecosystem engineering prior to maximal ichnodiversity. Similarities across different environments in the types of behavioural programme employed (as represented by different trace fossils), modes of life present and the ways in which animals impacted their environments suggest constraints on behavioural and ecological diversification. The early burst patterns have the hallmark of novelty events. The underlying drivers of these events were probably the extrinsic limitation of available ecospace and intrinsic controls of genomic and developmental plasticity that enabled trace-maker morphological and behavioural novelty.

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Figure 1: Colonization of subaqueous coastal environments (estuaries and shallow subtidal flats) through the Ediacaran to Permian periods.
Figure 2: Colonization of transitional coastal environments (coastal plains and tidal flats) through the Ediacaran to Permian periods.
Figure 3: Colonization of transitional alluvial environments (floodplains and abandoned channels) through the Ediacaran to Permian periods.
Figure 4: Number of global ichnogenera per global architectural design occupying different tiers through time in different environments.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for the initial part of this project was provided to N.J.M. through a Government of Canada Post-doctoral Research Fellowship under the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Program. Additional funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants 311726-05/08/15 and 311727-05/08/13 (to L.A.B. and M.G.M., respectively). M.R.G also acknowledges funding from an NSERC Discovery Grant. This is Earth Sciences Sector contribution number 20160255 and contribution 314 of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium of the National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC. We are grateful for the constructive comments of R. Garwood, which improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, Hampshire, UK

    Nicholas J. Minter

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, S7N 5E2, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Luis A. Buatois & M. Gabriela Mángano

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, Cambridgeshire, UK

    Neil S. Davies

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, B3H 4R2, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Martin R. Gibling

  5. Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), Natural Resources Canada, Calgary, T2L 2A7, Alberta, Canada

    Robert B. MacNaughton

  6. Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 20013-7012, DC, USA

    Conrad C. Labandeira

  7. Department of Entomology and BEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park, 21740, Maryland, USA

    Conrad C. Labandeira

  8. College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Conrad C. Labandeira

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  1. Nicholas J. Minter
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Contributions

N.J.M., L.A.B. and M.G.M. conceived the study. N.J.M., L.A.B., M.G.M., N.S.D., M.R.G., R.B.M. and C.C.L. contributed data to the analysis. N.J.M. performed the analysis and analysed the results. N.J.M. led the writing of the paper, with input from the other authors.

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Correspondence to Nicholas J. Minter.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–6: patterns of colonization of subaerial coastal, subaqueous alluvial, aeolian, subaqueous lacustrine, marginal lacustrine, and ephemeral lacustrine environments. Supplementary Figure 7: comparison of patterns with data pooled at different temporal resolutions. Supplementary Figures 8–10: graphical correlations between diversification metrics and sampling measures. Supplementary Figure 11: numbers of ichnogenera per architectural design occupying different tiers. Supplementary Figure 12: principal co-ordinate analysis. Supplementary Tables 1,2: Statistical analyses of correlations between sampling measures and diversification metrics. (PDF 2070 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Supplementary dataset of ichnogenera found globally by geological period within each environmental category. (XLSX 71 kb)

Supplementary Table 4

Supplementary dataset with presence–absence matrix of architectural designs. (XLSX 11 kb)

Supplementary Table 5

Supplementary dataset with presence–absence matrix of modes of life. (XLSX 40 kb)

Supplementary Table 6

Supplementary dataset with presence–absence matrix of impacts upon the sediment. (XLSX 40 kb)

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Minter, N., Buatois, L., Mángano, M. et al. Early bursts of diversification defined the faunal colonization of land. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0175 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0175

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