CUG team led by Prof. CHEN Zhongqiang from the State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology and the team led by Prof. Michael J. Benton from the University of Bristol carried out detailed paleoecological simulation analysis of the switch from brachiopods to bivalves as major seabed organisms. Their results showed that brachiopods and bivalves were not competitors over macroevolutionary time scales, with extinction events and environmental stresses shaping their divergent fates. The paper “Bayesian analyses indicate bivalves did not drive the downfall of brachiopods following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction” is published in Nature Communications on September 9, 2023.
Brachiopods were diverse in the Palaeozoic but were severely affected by the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME), while bivalve diversity gradually increased, showing the brachiopod-bivalve switch near the Permian-Triassic boundary. The left circle shows typical lifestyles of Permian brachiopods. The right circle illustrates the major types of Triassic and Jurassic bivalves. O Ordovician, S Silurian, D Devonian, C Carboniferous, P Permian, Tr Triassic, J Jurassic, K Cretaceous, Pg Paleogene, Ng Neogene.
Trends in bivalves (a–c) and brachiopods (d–f), with shaded areas in a, b, d, e indicate 95% highest posterior density (HPD) intervals; those in c and f indicate estimations of different replications that incorporate age uncertainties of fossil occurrences.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41358-8
