Oldest known naiaditid bivalve from the high-latitude Late Devonian (Famennian) of South Africa offers clues to survival strategies following the Hangenberg mass extinction

Scholze, Frank; Gess, Robert W

Title: Oldest known naiaditid bivalve from the high-latitude Late Devonian (Famennian) of South Africa offers clues to survival strategies following the Hangenberg mass extinction
Creator: Scholze, Frank, Gess, Robert W
Date: 2017
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/73921
Identifier: vital:30241
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.01.018
Description: A phased mass extinction event (which culminated in the Hangenberg event) marked the end of the Devonian period and had a significant impact on the palaeoecology and faunal diversity of vertebrate and invertebrate communities. In the present study the taxonomy of bivalves from the Waterloo Farm lagerstätte of the Upper Devonian, Famennian, Witpoort Formation (Witteberg Group, Cape Supergroup) was studied and compared with known Carboniferous examples. For the first time, Devonian bivalves of the Naiaditidae are described from a high-latitude palaeogeographic setting of Gondwana. The presented data suggests a high-latitude origin for post-Hangenberg event Naiaditidae, found at lower latitudes during the Early Carboniferous. This may have resulted from migration to lower latitudes in response to reduced global temperatures, which were associated with climatic perturbation at the time of the Hangenberg event, and which persisted into the Early Carboniferous. Taxa that were adapted to temperature ranges existing at high latitudes during the Late Devonian are likely to have followed these temperature ranges towards lower latitudes with decreasing global temperatures. Here they may have occupied free ecospace available in the aftermath of the Late Devonian extinction event.
Format: 8 pages, pdf
Language: English
Relation: Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, Scholze, F. and Gess, R.W., 2017. Oldest known naiaditid bivalve from the high-latitude Late Devonian (Famennian) of South Africa offers clues to survival strategies following the Hangenberg mass extinction. Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, 471, pp.31-39., Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology volume 417 31 39 April 2017 0031-0182
Rights: Elsevier
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Elsevier Terms and Conditions statement (https://www.elsevier.com/legal/elsevier-website-terms-and-conditions)

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