Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Post-Paleozoic Crinoid Radiation in Response to Benthic Predation Preceded the Mesozoic Marine Revolution
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ISSN
1091-6490
Publication Date
3-30-2010
Keywords
Macroecology, Macroevolution, Predation, Escalation, Cidaroids
Abstract
It has been argued that increases in predation over geological time should result in increases in defensive adaptations in prey taxa. Recent in situ and laboratory observations indicate that cidaroid sea urchins feed on live stalked crinoids, leaving distinct bite marks on their skeletal elements. Similar bite marks on fossil crinoids from Poland strongly suggest that these animals have been subject to echinoid predation since the Triassic. Following their near-demise during the end-Permian extinction, crinoids underwent a major evolutionary radiation during the Middle–Late Triassic that produced distinct morphological and behavioral novelties, particularly motile taxa that contrasted strongly with the predominantly sessile Paleozoic crinoid faunas. We suggest that the appearance and subsequent evolutionary success of motile crinoids were related to benthic predation by post-Paleozoic echinoids with their stronger and more active feeding apparatus and that, in the case of crinoids, the predation-driven Mesozoic marine revolution started earlier than in other groups, perhaps soon after the end-Permian extinction.
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0914199107
Volume
107
Issue
13
First Page
5893
Last Page
5896
NSUWorks Citation
Baumiller, Tomasz K., Mariusz A. Salamon, Przemysław Gorzelak, Rich Mooi, Charles G. Messing, and Forest J. Gahn. "Post-Paleozoic crinoid radiation in response to benthic predation preceded the Mesozoic marine revolution." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 13 (2010): 5893-5896.
