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Metacommunity analyses show increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Eden, Rebecca 

Abstract

The first animals appear during the late Ediacaran (572 – 541 Ma); an initial diversity increase was followed by a drop, interpreted as catastrophic mass extinction. We investigate the processes underlying these changes using the “Elements of Metacommunity Structure” framework. The oldest metacommunity was characterized by taxa with wide environmental tolerances, and limited specialisation and inter-taxa interactions. Structuring increased in the middle metacommunity, with groups of taxa sharing synchronous responses to environmental gradients, aggregating into distinct communities. This pattern strengthened in the youngest metacommunity, with communities showing strong environmental segregation and depth structure. Thus, metacommunity structure increased in complexity, with increased specialisation and resulting competitive exclusion, not a catastrophic environmental disaster, leading to diversity loss in the terminal Ediacaran, revealing that the complex eco-evolutionary dynamics associated with Cambrian diversification were established in the Ediacaran.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Biological Evolution, Ecosystem, Extinction, Biological

Journal Title

PLoS Biology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1544-9173
1545-7885

Volume Title

20

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/S014756/1)
This work was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council Independent Research Fellowship NE/S014756/1 to EGM. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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