Sea surface temperature contributes to marine crocodylomorph evolution
Sea surface temperature contributes to marine crocodylomorph evolution
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DOI：
10.1038/ncomms5658
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发表时间：
2014-08-01
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Benton, Michael J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Martin, Jeremy E.;Amiot, Romain;Benton, Michael J.
在中生代和新生代，四个不同的鳄鱼种谱系在海洋环境中定居。在中生代被温血鱼龙和蛇颈龙占据的高纬度地区明显没有它们的存在。尽管海洋鳄形动物的地层分布受到相对较好的限制，但人们对它们的多样性知之甚少，因为它们的灭绝既不与任何重大的生物危机重合，也不与潜在竞争对手的出现重合。在这里，我们测试了它们在分类多样性方面的进化历史与两个非生物因素--海平面变化和海洋表面温度(SST)--之间的潜在联系。除了可能具有特殊生态的地衣总科外，属多样性与特提斯SST估计值之间的显著相关性表明，水温是海洋鳄形动物多样性的驱动因素。它们很可能是外温爬行动物，在温暖的时期定居在海洋生物领域，并在温暖的时期多样化，然后在寒冷的时期衰落或灭绝。
During the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, four distinct crocodylomorph lineages colonized the marine environment. They were conspicuously absent from high latitudes, which in the Mesozoic were occupied by warm-blooded ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Despite a relatively well-constrained stratigraphic distribution, the varying diversities of marine crocodylomorphs are poorly understood, because their extinctions neither coincided with any major biological crises nor with the advent of potential competitors. Here we test the potential link between their evolutionary history in terms of taxic diversity and two abiotic factors, sea level variations and sea surface temperatures (SST). Excluding Metriorhynchoidea, which may have had a peculiar ecology, significant correlations obtained between generic diversity and estimated Tethyan SST suggest that water temperature was a driver of marine crocodylomorph diversity. Being most probably ectothermic reptiles, these lineages colonized the marine realm and diversified during warm periods, then declined or became extinct during cold intervals.