Late - Devonian - Extinction - Wiki
Late - Devonian - Extinction - Wiki
Late - Devonian - Extinction - Wiki
Causes
Since the Kellwasser-related extinctions occurred over such a long time, it is difficult to assign a single
cause, and indeed to separate cause from effect. The sedimentary record shows that the late Devonian
was a time of environmental change, which directly affected organisms and caused extinction. What
caused these changes is somewhat more open to debate.
From the end of the Middle Devonian, into the Late Devonian, several environmental changes can be
detected from the sedimentary record. Evidence exists of widespread anoxia in oceanic bottom
waters;[14] the rate of carbon burial shot up,[14] and benthic organisms were devastated, especially in the
tropics, and especially reef communities.[14] Good evidence has been found for high-frequency sea-level
changes around the Frasnian–Famennian Kellwasser event, with one sea level rise associated with the
onset of anoxic deposits.[19] The Hangenberg event has been associated with sea-level rise followed
swiftly by glaciation-related sea-level fall.[18][20]
Bolide impact
Bolide impacts can be dramatic triggers of mass extinctions. An asteroid impact was proposed as the
prime cause of this faunal turnover.[2][21] The impact that created the Siljan Ring either was just before
the Kellwasser event or coincided with it.[22] Most impact craters, such as the Kellwasser-aged Alamo
and the Hangenberg-aged Woodleigh, cannot generally be dated with sufficient precision to link them to
the event; others dated precisely are not contemporaneous with the extinction.[1] Although some minor
features of meteoric impact have been observed in places (iridium anomalies and microspherules), these
were probably caused by other factors.[23][24]
Plant evolution
During the Devonian, land plants underwent a hugely significant phase of evolution. Their maximum
height went from 30 cm at the start of the Devonian, to 30 m[25] at the end of the period. This increase in
height was made possible by the evolution of advanced vascular systems, which permitted the growth of
complex branching and rooting systems.[14] In conjunction with this, the development of seeds permitted
reproduction and dispersal in areas which were not waterlogged, allowing plants to colonise previously
inhospitable inland and upland areas.[14] The two factors combined to greatly magnify the role of plants
on the global scale. In particular, Archaeopteris forests expanded rapidly during the closing stages of the
Devonian.
Effect on weathering
These tall trees required deep rooting systems to acquire water and nutrients, and provide anchorage.
These systems broke up the upper layers of bedrock and stabilized a deep layer of soil, which would have
been of the order of metres thick. In contrast, early Devonian plants bore only rhizoids and rhizomes that
could penetrate no more than a few centimeters. The mobilization of a large portion of soil had a huge
effect: soil promotes weathering, the chemical breakdown of rocks, releasing ions which are nutrients for
plants and algae.[14] The relatively sudden input of nutrients into river water may have caused
eutrophication and subsequent anoxia. For example, during an algal bloom, organic material formed at
the surface can sink at such a rate that decomposing organisms use up all available oxygen by decaying
them, creating anoxic conditions and suffocating bottom-dwelling fish. The fossil reefs of the Frasnian
were dominated by stromatolites and (to a lesser degree) corals—organisms which only thrive in low-
nutrient conditions. Therefore, the postulated influx of high levels of nutrients may have caused an
extinction.[14] Anoxic conditions correlate better with biotic crises than phases of cooling, suggesting
anoxia may have played the dominant role in extinction.[23]
Effect on CO2
The "greening" of the continents occurred during the Devonian. The covering of the planet's continents
with massive photosynthesizing land plants in the first forests may have reduced CO2 levels in the
atmosphere. Since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, reduced levels might have helped produce a chillier climate.
Evidence such as glacial deposits in northern Brazil (near the Devonian South Pole) suggests widespread
glaciation at the end of the Devonian, as a broad continental mass covered the polar region. A cause of
the extinctions may have been an episode of global cooling, following the mild climate of the Devonian
period. The Hangenberg event has also been linked to glaciation in the tropics equivalent to that of the
Pleistocene ice age.[18]
The weathering of silicate rocks also draws down CO2 from the atmosphere. This acted together with the
burial of organic matter to decrease atmospheric CO2 concentrations from about 15 to three times present
levels. Carbon in the form of plant matter would be produced on prodigious scales, and given the right
conditions, could be stored and buried, eventually producing vast coal measures (e.g. in China) which
locked the carbon out of the atmosphere and into the lithosphere.[26] This reduction in atmospheric CO2
would have caused global cooling and resulted in at least one period of late Devonian glaciation (and
subsequent sea level fall),[27] probably fluctuating in intensity alongside the 40ka Milankovic cycle. The
continued drawdown of organic carbon eventually pulled the Earth out of its Greenhouse Earth state into
the Icehouse that continued throughout the Carboniferous and Permian.
Magmatism
Magmatism was suggested as a cause of the Late Devonian extinction in 2002.[28] The end of the
Devonian Period had extremely widespread trap magmatism and rifting in the Russian and Siberian
platforms, which were situated above the hot mantle plumes and suggested as a cause of the Frasnian /
Famennian and end-Devonian extinctions.[29] The Viluy and Pripyat-Dnieper-Donets large igneous
provinces were suggested to correlate with the Frasnian / Famennian extinction and the Kola and Timan-
Pechora magmatism was suggested to correspond to the end Devonian-Carboniferous extinction.[29]
Most recently, scientists have confirmed a correlation between Viluy traps (in the Vilyuysk region) on the
Siberian Craton and the Kellwasser extinction by 40Ar/39Ar dating.[30][31]
The Viluy Large igneous province covers most of the present day north-eastern margin of the Siberian
Platform. The triple-junction rift system was formed during the Devonian Period; the Viluy rift is the
western remaining branch of the system and two other branches form the modern margin of the Siberian
Platform. Volcanic rocks are covered with post Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous sediments.[32]
Volcanic rocks, dyke belts, and sills that cover more than 320,000 km2, and a gigantic amount of
magmatic material (more than 1 million km3) formed in the Viluy branch.[32]
Ages show that the two volcanic phase hypotheses are well supported and the weighted mean ages of
each volcanic phase are 376.7 ± 3.4 and 364.4 ± 3.4 Ma, or 373.4 ± 2.1 and 363.2 ± 2.0 Ma, which the
first volcanic phase is in agreement with the age of 372.2 ± 3.2 Ma proposed for the Kellwasser event.
However, the second volcanic phase is slightly older than Hangenberg event which place at
358.9 ± 1.2 Ma.[31] Viluy magmatism may have injected enough CO2 and SO2 into the atmosphere to
have generated a destabilised greenhouse and ecosystem, causing rapid global cooling, sea-level falls and
marine anoxia occur during Kellwasser black shale deposition.[33][34][35][36]
Other suggestions
Other mechanisms put forward to explain the extinctions include tectonic-driven climate change, sea-
level change, and oceanic overturning. These have all been discounted because they are unable to explain
the duration, selectivity, and periodicity of the extinctions.[23] Another overlooked contributor could be
the now extinct Cerberean Caldera which was active in the Late Devonian period and thought to have
undergone a super eruption approximately 374 Million years ago.[a][38] Remains of this caldera can be
found in the modern day state of Victoria, Australia.
Effects
The extinction events were accompanied by widespread oceanic anoxia; that is, a lack of oxygen,
prohibiting decay and allowing the preservation of organic matter. This, combined with the ability of
porous reef rocks to hold oil, has led to Devonian rocks being an important source of oil, especially in the
USA.
Biological impact
The Kellwasser event and most other Later Devonian pulses primarily affected the marine community,
and had a greater effect on shallow warm-water organisms than on cool-water organisms. The most
important group to be affected by the Kellwasser event were the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef-
systems, including the stromatoporoids, and the rugose and tabulate corals. Reefs of the later Devonian
were dominated by sponges and calcifying bacteria, producing structures such as oncolites and
stromatolites. The collapse of the reef system was so stark that bigger reef-building by new families of
carbonate-secreting organisms, the modern scleractinian or "stony" corals, did not recover until the
Mesozoic era.
Further taxa to be starkly affected include the brachiopods, trilobites, ammonites, conodonts, and
acritarchs. Both graptolites and cystoids disappeared during this event. The surviving taxa show
morphological trends through the event. Trilobites evolved smaller eyes in the run-up to the Kellwasser
event, with eye size increasing again afterwards. This suggests vision was less important around the
event, perhaps due to increasing water depth or turbidity. The brims of trilobites (i.e. the rims of their
heads) also expanded across this period. The brims are thought to have served a respiratory purpose, and
the increasing anoxia of waters led to an increase in their brim area in response. The shape of conodonts'
feeding apparatus varied with the oxygen isotope ratio, and thus with the sea water temperature; this may
relate to them occupying different trophic levels as nutrient input changed.[34] As with most extinction
events, specialist taxa occupying small niches were harder hit than generalists.[2]
The Hangenberg event affected both marine and freshwater communities. This mass extinction affected
ammonites and trilobites, as well as jawed vertebrates, including tetrapod ancestors.[10][39] The
Hangenberg is linked to the extinction of 44% of high-level vertebrate clades, including all placoderms
and most sarcopterygians, and the complete turnover of the vertebrate biota.[10] 97% of vertebrate
species disappeared, with only smaller forms surviving. After the event only sharks less than a meter and
most fishes and tetrapods less than 10 centimeters remained, and it would take 40 million years before
they started to increase in size again.[40] This led to the establishment of the modern vertebrate fauna in
the Carboniferous, consisting mostly of actinopterygians, chondrichthyans, and tetrapods. Romer's gap, a
15 million-year hiatus in the early Carboniferous tetrapod record, has been linked to this event.[10] Also,
the poor Famennian record for marine invertebrates suggests that some of the losses attributed to the
Kellwasser event likely actually occurred during the Hangenberg extinction.[10][41]
Magnitude
The late Devonian crash in biodiversity was more drastic than the familiar extinction event that closed
the Cretaceous. A recent survey (McGhee 1996) estimates that 22% of all the 'families' of marine animals
(largely invertebrates) were eliminated. The family is a great unit, and to lose so many signifies a deep
loss of ecosystem diversity. On a smaller scale, 57% of genera and at least 75% of species did not survive
into the Carboniferous. These latter estimates[b] need to be treated with a degree of caution, as the
estimates of species loss depend on surveys of Devonian marine taxa that are perhaps not well enough
known to assess their true rate of losses, so it is difficult to estimate the effects of differential preservation
and sampling biases during the Devonian.
See also
Evolutionary history of plants
Notes
a. Though a super eruption on its own would have devastating effects in the long term, the
Late Devonian extinction was caused by a series of events which contributed to the
extinction.[37]
b. The species estimate is the toughest to assess and most likely to be adjusted.
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Frasnian/Famennian Crisis (https://books.google.com/books?id=xc70cveVCJsC&pg=PA9).
Columbia University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-231-07505-3. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
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External links
Late Devonian mass extinctions (http://www.devoniantimes.org/opportunity/massExtinction.
html) at The Devonian Times. An excellent overview.
Devonian Mass Extinction (https://web.archive.org/web/20061028130757/http://hannover.pa
rk.org/Canada/Museum/extinction/devmass.html)
BBC "The Extinction files" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/exfiles/devonian.htm)
"The Late Devonian Extinction"
"Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic Biotic and Climatic Events: Towards
an Integrated Approach (http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2003AM/finalprogram/session_8723.ht
m)": a Geological Society of America conference in 2003 reflects current approaches
PBS: Deep Time (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/devonian.html)
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