Neogene mass extinction of Western Atlantic molluscs
Neogene mass extinction of Western Atlantic molluscs
复制标题
西大西洋软体动物的新近纪大规模灭绝
作者：
S. Stanley;L. Campbell
对于地球中生代历史期间发生的全球大规模灭绝有许多假设，尽管我们无法研究这种大规模灭绝的过程，但有可能评估最近发生的地质时期的主要灭绝脉冲。对热带西大西洋晚新生代海洋动物群异常高的灭绝率的解释集中在巴拿马地峡1，2的起源可能阻塞富含营养的沃茨和更新世海洋冷却2，3，5，6或海退2，4，5。在这里，我们报告说，软体动物灭绝的主要事件发生在至少远北弗吉尼亚州，我们的结论是，这些事件主要是由冷冻与上新世晚期和更新世大陆冰川的增长。
There have been many hypotheses for the global mass extinctions that occurred during the Phanerozoic history of the Earth, and although we cannot study the course of such a mass extinction in progress, it is possible to evaluate major pulses of extinction that have taken place recently in geological time. Explanations of the unusually high rates of extinction within late Cenozoic marine faunas of the tropical Western Atlantic have focused on possible blocking of nutrient-laden waters by the origin of the Isthmus of Panama1,2 and on Pleistocene cooling2,3,5,6 or regression2,4,5 of seas. Here we report that major episodes of molluscan extinction occurred at least as far north as Virginia, and we conclude that these episodes were caused primarily by refrigeration associated with the late Pliocene and Pleistocene growth of continental glaciers.