Evolutionary contingency in lingulid brachiopods across mass extinctions

Yue Liang; Luke C Strotz; Timothy P Topper; Lars E Holmer; Graham E Budd; Yanlong Chen; Ruisen Fang; Yazhou Hu; Zhifei Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.038

Evolutionary contingency in lingulid brachiopods across mass extinctions

Curr Biol. 2023 Apr 24;33(8):1565-1572.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.038. Epub 2023 Mar 8.

Authors

Yue Liang¹, Luke C Strotz², Timothy P Topper³, Lars E Holmer¹, Graham E Budd⁴, Yanlong Chen⁵, Ruisen Fang⁵, Yazhou Hu⁵, Zhifei Zhang⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75236, Sweden.
² State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; Department of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria.
³ State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, Stockholm 10405, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75236, Sweden.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. Electronic address: elizf@nwu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36893760
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.038

Abstract

Morphology usually serves as an effective proxy for functional ecology,¹^,²^,³^,⁴^,⁵ and evaluating morphological, anatomical, and ecological changes permits a deeper understanding of the nature of diversification and macroevolution.⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹² Lingulid (order Lingulida) brachiopods are both diverse and abundant during the early Palaeozoic but decrease in diversity over time, with only a few genera of linguloids and discinoids present in modern marine ecosystems, resulting in them frequently being referred to as "living fossils."¹³^,¹⁴^,¹⁵ The dynamics that drove this decline remain uncertain, and it has not been determined if there is an associated decline in morphological and ecological diversity. Here, we apply geometric morphometrics to reconstruct global morphospace occupation for lingulid brachiopods through the Phanerozoic, with results showing that maximum morphospace occupation was reached by the Early Ordovician. At this time of peak diversity, linguloids with a sub-rectangular shell shape already possessed several evolutionary features, such as the rearrangement of mantle canals and reduction of the pseudointerarea, common to all modern infaunal forms. The end Ordovician mass extinction has a differential effect on linguloids, disproportionally wiping out those forms with a rounded shell shape, while forms with sub-rectangular shells survived both the end Ordovician and the Permian-Triassic mass extinctions, leaving a fauna predominantly composed of infaunal forms. For discinoids, both morphospace occupation and epibenthic life strategies remain consistent through the Phanerozoic. Morphospace occupation over time, when considered using anatomical and ecological analyses, suggests that the limited morphological and ecological diversity of modern lingulid brachiopods reflects evolutionary contingency rather than deterministic processes.

Keywords: brachiopods; contingency; macroevolution; mass extinctions; morphospace.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Ecosystem*
Extinction, Biological*
Fossils
Invertebrates / genetics