Drivers of Selective Mass Extinction: Insight from Integrated Paleontological and Geochemical Records

现代世界的环境变化使许多物种面临灭绝的威胁。了解过去地球上类似的破坏是如何导致物种灭绝的，为理解当前生物圈面临的风险提供了必要的背景。这个项目的重点是泥盆纪晚期大灭绝，这是地球历史上“五大”大灭绝之一，发生在大约3.72亿年前。它将解决以下问题：1)在这次灭绝期间环境条件是如何变化的？哪种动物在大灭绝中幸存下来，哪种动物死亡？3)这些生物的哪些特征或特征促进了它们的生存而不是灭绝？该项目将结合来自多个空间尺度的信息，包括从纽约州北部和宾夕法尼亚州的晚泥盆纪岩石中收集的大量化石，以及从全球社区数据库中挖掘的“大数据”。该项目包括通过当地博物馆进行推广，包括关于物种灭绝的公开讲座，以及为当地儿童博物馆开发新的实践活动。该项目的实地部分将侧重于阿巴拉契亚盆地上弗拉斯纪和下法曼纪腕足动物和珊瑚物种的地层范围，通过测量地层剖面获得的有机碳同位素，以及氧合的代用物，包括化石含量和微量金属。全球部分将利用古生物数据库和其他数据库中的属的时间、古环境和古纬度范围；将增加新的晚泥盆纪收藏品以改善数据覆盖范围。人们提出的主要灭绝原因包括全球变冷和海洋缺氧。在区域和全球尺度上，将使用纬度范围作为温度耐受性的代表和古环境偏好（深度偏好和范围）作为氧气消耗脆弱性的代表来评估这些因素的灭绝选择性。

Environmental changes in the modern world threaten many species with extinction. Understanding how similar disruptions drove extinction in Earth's past provides essential context for understanding current risks to the biosphere. This project focuses on the Late Devonian mass extinction, one of the "Big 5" mass extinctions in Earth's history, which occurred approximately 372 million years ago. It will address the following questions: 1) How did environmental conditions change during this extinction? 2) What kinds of animals survived the extinction and what kinds died? 3) What features or traits of these organisms promoted survival versus extinction? The project will combine information from multiple spatial scales, including extensive fossil collections from Late Devonian-aged rocks in upstate New York and Pennsylvania and 'Big data' mined from global, community-wide databases. The project includes outreach through local museums, including public lectures on extinction and the development of new hands-on activities for use at a local children's museum. The field-based component of the project will focus on stratigraphic ranges of brachiopod and coral species in the upper Frasnian and lower Famennian of the Appalachian Basin, organic carbon isotopes through measured stratigraphic sections, and proxies for oxygenation, including fossil content and trace metals. The global component will draw on the temporal, paleoenvironmental, and paleolatitudinal ranges of genera in the Paleobiology Database and other databases; new Late Devonian collections will be added to improve data coverage. Leading proposed causes of extinction include global cooling and ocean anoxia. At both the regional and global scales, selectivity of extinction with respect to these factors will be evaluated using latitudinal range as a proxy for temperature tolerance and paleoenvironmental preference (depth preference and range) as a proxy for vulnerability to oxygen depletion.