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72-712: Conyza ( horseweed , butterweed or fleabane ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae . They are native to tropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world, and also north into cool temperate regions in North America and eastern Asia . The New World species of the genus are closely related to Erigeron (also known as fleabanes). The species are annual or perennial herbaceous plants, rarely shrubs , growing to 1–2 m tall. The stems are erect, branched, with alternate leaves . The flowers are produced in inflorescences , with several inflorescences loosely clustered on each stem. Many species of

144-1820: A molecular phylogeny of plants placed the flowering plants in their evolutionary context: Bryophytes [REDACTED] Lycophytes [REDACTED] Ferns [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The main groups of living angiosperms are: Amborellales [REDACTED] 1 sp. New Caledonia shrub Nymphaeales [REDACTED] c. 80 spp. water lilies & allies Austrobaileyales [REDACTED] c. 100 spp. woody plants Magnoliids [REDACTED] c. 10,000 spp. 3-part flowers, 1-pore pollen, usu. branch-veined leaves Chloranthales [REDACTED] 77 spp. Woody, apetalous Monocots [REDACTED] c. 70,000 spp. 3-part flowers, 1 cotyledon , 1-pore pollen, usu. parallel-veined leaves   Ceratophyllales [REDACTED] c. 6 spp. aquatic plants Eudicots [REDACTED] c. 175,000 spp. 4- or 5-part flowers, 3-pore pollen, usu. branch-veined leaves Amborellales Melikyan, Bobrov & Zaytzeva 1999 Nymphaeales Salisbury ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Austrobaileyales Takhtajan ex Reveal 1992 Chloranthales Mart. 1835 Canellales Cronquist 1957 Piperales von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Magnoliales de Jussieu ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Laurales de Jussieu ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Acorales Link 1835 Alismatales Brown ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Petrosaviales Takhtajan 1997 Dioscoreales Brown 1835 Pandanales Brown ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Liliales Perleb 1826 Asparagales Link 1829 Arecales Bromhead 1840 Poales Small 1903 Zingiberales Grisebach 1854 Commelinales de Mirbel ex von Berchtold & Presl 1820 Extinction event In

216-520: A paraphyletic group) by therapsids occurred around the Kungurian / Roadian transition, which is often called Olson's extinction (which may be a slow decline over 20 Ma rather than a dramatic, brief event). Another point of view put forward in the Escalation hypothesis predicts that species in ecological niches with more organism-to-organism conflict will be less likely to survive extinctions. This

288-401: A "collection" (such as a time interval) to assess the relative diversity of that collection. Every time a new species (or other taxon ) enters the sample, it brings over all other fossils belonging to that species in the collection (its " share " of the collection). For example, a skewed collection with half its fossils from one species will immediately reach a sample share of 50% if that species

360-425: A Phanerozoic phenomenon, with merely the observable extinction rates appearing low before large complex organisms with hard body parts arose. Extinction occurs at an uneven rate. Based on the fossil record , the background rate of extinctions on Earth is about two to five taxonomic families of marine animals every million years. The Oxygen Catastrophe, which occurred around 2.45 billion years ago in

432-648: A backdrop of decreasing extinction rates through time. Four of these peaks were statistically significant: the Ashgillian ( end-Ordovician ), Late Permian , Norian ( end-Triassic ), and Maastrichtian (end-Cretaceous). The remaining peak was a broad interval of high extinction smeared over the later half of the Devonian , with its apex in the Frasnian stage. Through the 1980s, Raup and Sepkoski continued to elaborate and build upon their extinction and origination data, defining

504-409: A considerable period of time after a mass extinction, and which were reduced to only a few species, are likely to have experienced a rebound effect called the " push of the past ". Darwin was firmly of the opinion that biotic interactions, such as competition for food and space – the 'struggle for existence' – were of considerably greater importance in promoting evolution and extinction than changes in

576-424: A high-resolution biodiversity curve (the "Sepkoski curve") and successive evolutionary faunas with their own patterns of diversification and extinction. Though these interpretations formed a strong basis for subsequent studies of mass extinctions, Raup and Sepkoski also proposed a more controversial idea in 1984: a 26-million-year periodic pattern to mass extinctions. Two teams of astronomers linked this to

648-425: A hypothetical brown dwarf in the distant reaches of the solar system, inventing the " Nemesis hypothesis " which has been strongly disputed by other astronomers. Around the same time, Sepkoski began to devise a compendium of marine animal genera , which would allow researchers to explore extinction at a finer taxonomic resolution. He began to publish preliminary results of this in-progress study as early as 1986, in

720-470: A lack of consensus on Late Triassic chronology For much of the 20th century, the study of mass extinctions was hampered by insufficient data. Mass extinctions, though acknowledged, were considered mysterious exceptions to the prevailing gradualistic view of prehistory, where slow evolutionary trends define faunal changes. The first breakthrough was published in 1980 by a team led by Luis Alvarez , who discovered trace metal evidence for an asteroid impact at

792-643: A landmark paper published in 1982, Jack Sepkoski and David M. Raup identified five particular geological intervals with excessive diversity loss. They were originally identified as outliers on a general trend of decreasing extinction rates during the Phanerozoic , but as more stringent statistical tests have been applied to the accumulating data, it has been established that in the current, Phanerozoic Eon, multicellular animal life has experienced at least five major and many minor mass extinctions. The "Big Five" cannot be so clearly defined, but rather appear to represent

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864-440: A long-term stress is compounded by a short-term shock. Over the course of the Phanerozoic , individual taxa appear to have become less likely to suffer extinction, which may reflect more robust food webs, as well as fewer extinction-prone species, and other factors such as continental distribution. However, even after accounting for sampling bias, there does appear to be a gradual decrease in extinction and origination rates during

936-399: A new wave of studies into the dynamics of mass extinctions. These papers utilized the compendium to track origination rates (the rate that new species appear or speciate ) parallel to extinction rates in the context of geological stages or substages. A review and re-analysis of Sepkoski's data by Bambach (2006) identified 18 distinct mass extinction intervals, including 4 large extinctions in

1008-813: A paper which identified 29 extinction intervals of note. By 1992, he also updated his 1982 family compendium, finding minimal changes to the diversity curve despite a decade of new data. In 1996, Sepkoski published another paper which tracked marine genera extinction (in terms of net diversity loss) by stage, similar to his previous work on family extinctions. The paper filtered its sample in three ways: all genera (the entire unfiltered sample size), multiple-interval genera (only those found in more than one stage), and "well-preserved" genera (excluding those from groups with poor or understudied fossil records). Diversity trends in marine animal families were also revised based on his 1992 update. Revived interest in mass extinctions led many other authors to re-evaluate geological events in

1080-613: A separate event from the P–T extinction; if so, it would be larger than some of the "Big Five" extinction events.   The End Cretaceous extinction, or the K–Pg extinction (formerly K–T extinction) occurred at the Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) – Paleogene ( Danian ) transition. The event was formerly called the Cretaceous-Tertiary or K–T extinction or K–T boundary; it is now officially named

1152-508: A species' true extinction must occur after its last fossil, and that origination must occur before its first fossil. Thus, species which appear to die out just prior to an abrupt extinction event may instead be a victim of the event, despite an apparent gradual decline looking at the fossil record alone. A model by Foote (2007) found that many geological stages had artificially inflated extinction rates due to Signor-Lipps "backsmearing" from later stages with extinction events. Other biases include

1224-586: A time interval, and sampling time intervals in sequence, can together be combined into equations to predict extinction and origination with less bias. In subsequent papers, Alroy continued to refine his equations to improve lingering issues with precision and unusual samples. McGhee et al. (2013), a paper which primarily focused on ecological effects of mass extinctions, also published new estimates of extinction severity based on Alroy's methods. Many extinctions were significantly more impactful under these new estimates, though some were less prominent. Stanley (2016)

1296-610: A total of 64 angiosperm orders and 416 families. The diversity of flowering plants is not evenly distributed. Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%), and magnoliid (2%) clades. The remaining five clades contain a little over 250 species in total; i.e. less than 0.1% of flowering plant diversity, divided among nine families. The 25 most species-rich of 443 families, containing over 166,000 species between them in their APG circumscriptions, are: The botanical term "angiosperm", from Greek words angeíon ( ἀγγεῖον 'bottle, vessel') and spérma ( σπέρμα 'seed'),

1368-858: Is starting to impact plants and is likely to cause many species to become extinct by 2100. Angiosperms are terrestrial vascular plants; like the gymnosperms, they have roots , stems , leaves , and seeds . They differ from other seed plants in several ways. The largest angiosperms are Eucalyptus gum trees of Australia, and Shorea faguetiana , dipterocarp rainforest trees of Southeast Asia, both of which can reach almost 100 metres (330 ft) in height. The smallest are Wolffia duckweeds which float on freshwater, each plant less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) across. Considering their method of obtaining energy, some 99% of flowering plants are photosynthetic autotrophs , deriving their energy from sunlight and using it to create molecules such as sugars . The remainder are parasitic , whether on fungi like

1440-401: Is also the largest known extinction event for insects . The highly successful marine arthropod, the trilobite , became extinct. The evidence regarding plants is less clear, but new taxa became dominant after the extinction. The "Great Dying" had enormous evolutionary significance: on land, it ended the primacy of early synapsids . The recovery of vertebrates took 30 million years, but

1512-447: Is because the very traits that keep a species numerous and viable under fairly static conditions become a burden once population levels fall among competing organisms during the dynamics of an extinction event. Furthermore, many groups that survive mass extinctions do not recover in numbers or diversity, and many of these go into long-term decline, and these are often referred to as " Dead Clades Walking ". However, clades that survive for

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1584-490: Is speculated to have ushered in the Phanerozoic. In May 2020, studies suggested that the causes of the mass extinction were global warming , related to volcanism , and anoxia , and not, as considered earlier, cooling and glaciation . However, this is at odds with numerous previous studies, which have indicated global cooling as the primary driver. Most recently, the deposition of volcanic ash has been suggested to be

1656-464: Is strong evidence supporting periodicity in a variety of records, and additional evidence in the form of coincident periodic variation in nonbiological geochemical variables such as Strontium isotopes, flood basalts, anoxic events, orogenies, and evaporite deposition. One explanation for this proposed cycle is carbon storage and release by oceanic crust, which exchanges carbon between the atmosphere and mantle. Mass extinctions are thought to result when

1728-451: Is the " Pull of the recent ", the fact that the fossil record (and thus known diversity) generally improves closer to the modern day. This means that biodiversity and abundance for older geological periods may be underestimated from raw data alone. Alroy (2010) attempted to circumvent sample size-related biases in diversity estimates using a method he called " shareholder quorum subsampling" (SQS). In this method, fossils are sampled from

1800-423: Is the first to be sampled. This continues, adding up the sample shares until a "coverage" or " quorum " is reached, referring to a pre-set desired sum of share percentages. At that point, the number of species in the sample are counted. A collection with more species is expected to reach a sample quorum with more species, thus accurately comparing the relative diversity change between two collections without relying on

1872-485: The Alismatales grow in marine environments, spreading with rhizomes that grow through the mud in sheltered coastal waters. Some specialised angiosperms are able to flourish in extremely acid or alkaline habitats. The sundews , many of which live in nutrient-poor acid bogs , are carnivorous plants , able to derive nutrients such as nitrate from the bodies of trapped insects. Other flowers such as Gentiana verna ,

1944-579: The Cambrian . These fit Sepkoski's definition of extinction, as short substages with large diversity loss and overall high extinction rates relative to their surroundings. Bambach et al. (2004) considered each of the "Big Five" extinction intervals to have a different pattern in the relationship between origination and extinction trends. Moreover, background extinction rates were broadly variable and could be separated into more severe and less severe time intervals. Background extinctions were least severe relative to

2016-520: The Cambrian explosion , five further major mass extinctions have significantly exceeded the background extinction rate. The most recent and best-known, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event , which occurred approximately 66 Ma (million years ago), was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time. In addition to the five major Phanerozoic mass extinctions, there are numerous lesser ones, and

2088-526: The Paleoproterozoic , is plausible as the first-ever major extinction event. It was perhaps also the worst-ever, in some sense, but with the Earth's ecology just before that time so poorly understood, and the concept of prokaryote genera so different from genera of complex life, that it would be difficult to meaningfully compare it to any of the "Big Five" even if Paleoproterozoic life were better known. Since

2160-575: The biosphere rather than the total diversity and abundance of life. For this reason, well-documented extinction events are confined to the Phanerozoic eon – with the sole exception of the Oxygen Catastrophe in the Proterozoic – since before the Phanerozoic, all living organisms were either microbial, or if multicellular then soft-bodied. Perhaps due to the absence of a robust microbial fossil record, mass extinctions might only seem to be mainly

2232-460: The orchids for part or all of their life-cycle, or on other plants , either wholly like the broomrapes, Orobanche , or partially like the witchweeds, Striga . In terms of their environment, flowering plants are cosmopolitan, occupying a wide range of habitats on land, in fresh water and in the sea. On land, they are the dominant plant group in every habitat except for frigid moss-lichen tundra and coniferous forest . The seagrasses in

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2304-481: The seeds are enclosed within a fruit. The group was formerly called Magnoliophyta . Angiosperms are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders , 416 families , approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species . They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem ), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of broad-leaved trees , shrubs and vines , and most aquatic plants . Angiosperms are distinguished from

2376-773: The "Big Five" extinction events in Earth's history, only the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event had occurred while angiosperms dominated plant life on the planet. Today, the Holocene extinction affects all kingdoms of complex life on Earth, and conservation measures are necessary to protect plants in their habitats in the wild ( in situ ), or failing that, ex situ in seed banks or artificial habitats like botanic gardens . Otherwise, around 40% of plant species may become extinct due to human actions such as habitat destruction , introduction of invasive species , unsustainable logging , land clearing and overharvesting of medicinal or ornamental plants . Further, climate change

2448-480: The Cretaceous–Paleogene (or K–Pg) extinction event. About 17% of all families, 50% of all genera and 75% of all species became extinct. In the seas all the ammonites , plesiosaurs and mosasaurs disappeared and the percentage of sessile animals was reduced to about 33%. All non-avian dinosaurs became extinct during that time. The boundary event was severe with a significant amount of variability in

2520-748: The Late Devonian extinction interval ( Givetian , Frasnian, and Famennian stages) to be statistically significant. Regardless, later studies have affirmed the strong ecological impacts of the Kellwasser and Hangenberg Events.   The End Permian extinction or the "Great Dying" occurred at the Permian – Triassic transition. It was the Phanerozoic Eon's largest extinction: 53% of marine families died, 84% of marine genera, about 81% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. This

2592-430: The Phanerozoic. This may represent the fact that groups with higher turnover rates are more likely to become extinct by chance; or it may be an artefact of taxonomy: families tend to become more speciose, therefore less prone to extinction, over time; and larger taxonomic groups (by definition) appear earlier in geological time. It has also been suggested that the oceans have gradually become more hospitable to life over

2664-561: The Sun, oscillations in the galactic plane, or passage through the Milky Way's spiral arms. However, other authors have concluded that the data on marine mass extinctions do not fit with the idea that mass extinctions are periodic, or that ecosystems gradually build up to a point at which a mass extinction is inevitable. Many of the proposed correlations have been argued to be spurious or lacking statistical significance. Others have argued that there

2736-400: The biases inherent to sample size. Alroy also elaborated on three-timer algorithms, which are meant to counteract biases in estimates of extinction and origination rates. A given taxon is a "three-timer" if it can be found before, after, and within a given time interval, and a "two-timer" if it overlaps with a time interval on one side. Counting "three-timers" and "two-timers" on either end of

2808-413: The context of their effects on life. A 1995 paper by Michael Benton tracked extinction and origination rates among both marine and continental (freshwater & terrestrial) families, identifying 22 extinction intervals and no periodic pattern. Overview books by O.H. Walliser (1996) and A. Hallam and P.B. Wignall (1997) summarized the new extinction research of the previous two decades. One chapter in

2880-478: The correlation of extinction and origination rates to diversity. High diversity leads to a persistent increase in extinction rate; low diversity to a persistent increase in origination rate. These presumably ecologically controlled relationships likely amplify smaller perturbations (asteroid impacts, etc.) to produce the global effects observed. A good theory for a particular mass extinction should: It may be necessary to consider combinations of causes. For example,

2952-458: The difficulty in assessing taxa with high turnover rates or restricted occurrences, which cannot be directly assessed due to a lack of fine-scale temporal resolution. Many paleontologists opt to assess diversity trends by randomized sampling and rarefaction of fossil abundances rather than raw temporal range data, in order to account for all of these biases. But that solution is influenced by biases related to sample size. One major bias in particular

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3024-813: The dominant group of plants across the planet. Agriculture is almost entirely dependent on angiosperms, and a small number of flowering plant families supply nearly all plant-based food and livestock feed. Rice , maize and wheat provide half of the world's staple calorie intake, and all three plants are cereals from the Poaceae family (colloquially known as grasses). Other families provide important industrial plant products such as wood , paper and cotton , and supply numerous ingredients for beverages , sugar production , traditional medicine and modern pharmaceuticals . Flowering plants are also commonly grown for decorative purposes , with certain flowers playing significant cultural roles in many societies. Out of

3096-492: The effect of reducing the estimated severity of the six sampled mass extinction events. This effect was stronger for mass extinctions which occurred in periods with high rates of background extinction, like the Devonian. Because most diversity and biomass on Earth is microbial , and thus difficult to measure via fossils, extinction events placed on-record are those that affect the easily observed, biologically complex component of

3168-513: The end of the Cretaceous period. The Alvarez hypothesis for the end-Cretaceous extinction gave mass extinctions, and catastrophic explanations, newfound popular and scientific attention. Another landmark study came in 1982, when a paper written by David M. Raup and Jack Sepkoski was published in the journal Science . This paper, originating from a compendium of extinct marine animal families developed by Sepkoski, identified five peaks of marine family extinctions which stand out among

3240-752: The end of the period of pressure. Their statistical analysis of marine extinction rates throughout the Phanerozoic suggested that neither long-term pressure alone nor a catastrophe alone was sufficient to cause a significant increase in the extinction rate. MacLeod (2001) summarized the relationship between mass extinctions and events that are most often cited as causes of mass extinctions, using data from Courtillot, Jaeger & Yang et al. (1996), Hallam (1992) and Grieve & Pesonen (1992): The most commonly suggested causes of mass extinctions are listed below. The formation of large igneous provinces by flood basalt events could have: Flood basalt events occur as pulses of activity punctuated by dormant periods. As

3312-456: The entire Phanerozoic. As data continued to accumulate, some authors began to re-evaluate Sepkoski's sample using methods meant to account for sampling biases . As early as 1982, a paper by Phillip W. Signor and Jere H. Lipps noted that the true sharpness of extinctions was diluted by the incompleteness of the fossil record. This phenomenon, later called the Signor-Lipps effect , notes that

3384-635: The flowering plants as an unranked clade without a formal Latin name (angiosperms). A formal classification was published alongside the 2009 revision in which the flowering plants rank as the subclass Magnoliidae. From 1998, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) has reclassified the angiosperms, with updates in the APG II system in 2003, the APG III system in 2009, and the APG IV system in 2016. In 2019,

3456-556: The following section. The "Big Five" mass extinctions are bolded. Graphed but not discussed by Sepkoski (1996), considered continuous with the Late Devonian mass extinction At the time considered continuous with the end-Permian mass extinction Includes late Norian time slices Diversity loss of both pulses calculated together Pulses extend over adjacent time slices, calculated separately Considered ecologically significant, but not analyzed directly Excluded due to

3528-429: The former source lists over 60 geological events which could conceivably be considered global extinctions of varying sizes. These texts, and other widely circulated publications in the 1990s, helped to establish the popular image of mass extinctions as a "big five" alongside many smaller extinctions through prehistory. Though Sepkoski died in 1999, his marine genera compendium was formally published in 2002. This prompted

3600-534: The genus Conyza are ruderal species and some have been found to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate . Flowering plant Basal angiosperms Core angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits , and form the clade Angiospermae ( / ˌ æ n dʒ i ə ˈ s p ər m iː / ). The term 'angiosperm' is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον / angeion ('container, vessel') and σπέρμα / sperma ('seed'), meaning that

3672-451: The large terrestrial vertebrate niches. The dinosaurs themselves had been beneficiaries of a previous mass extinction, the end-Triassic , which eliminated most of their chief rivals, the crurotarsans . Similarly, within Synapsida , the replacement of taxa that originated in the earliest, Pennsylvanian and Cisuralian evolutionary radiation (often still called " pelycosaurs ", though this is

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3744-626: The largest (or some of the largest) of a relatively smooth continuum of extinction events. All of the five in the Phanerozoic Eon were anciently preceded by the presumed far more extensive mass extinction of microbial life during the Great Oxidation Event (a.k.a. Oxygen Catastrophe) early in the Proterozoic Eon . At the end of the Ediacaran and just before the Cambrian explosion , yet another Proterozoic extinction event (of unknown magnitude)

3816-422: The last 500 million years, and thus less vulnerable to mass extinctions, but susceptibility to extinction at a taxonomic level does not appear to make mass extinctions more or less probable. There is still debate about the causes of all mass extinctions. In general, large extinctions may result when a biosphere under long-term stress undergoes a short-term shock. An underlying mechanism appears to be present in

3888-518: The manner of vines or lianas . The number of species of flowering plants is estimated to be in the range of 250,000 to 400,000. This compares to around 12,000 species of moss and 11,000 species of pteridophytes . The APG system seeks to determine the number of families , mostly by molecular phylogenetics . In the 2009 APG III there were 415 families. The 2016 APG IV added five new orders (Boraginales, Dilleniales, Icacinales, Metteniusales and Vahliales), along with some new families, for

3960-430: The marine aspect of the end-Cretaceous extinction appears to have been caused by several processes that partially overlapped in time and may have had different levels of significance in different parts of the world. Arens and West (2006) proposed a "press / pulse" model in which mass extinctions generally require two types of cause: long-term pressure on the eco-system ("press") and a sudden catastrophe ("pulse") towards

4032-426: The old, dominant group and makes way for the new one, a process known as adaptive radiation . For example, mammaliaformes ("almost mammals") and then mammals existed throughout the reign of the dinosaurs , but could not compete in the large terrestrial vertebrate niches that dinosaurs monopolized. The end-Cretaceous mass extinction removed the non-avian dinosaurs and made it possible for mammals to expand into

4104-400: The ongoing mass extinction caused by human activity is sometimes called the sixth mass extinction . Mass extinctions have sometimes accelerated the evolution of life on Earth . When dominance of particular ecological niches passes from one group of organisms to another, it is rarely because the newly dominant group is "superior" to the old but usually because an extinction event eliminates

4176-558: The origination rate in the middle Ordovician-early Silurian, late Carboniferous-Permian, and Jurassic-recent. This argues that the Late Ordovician, end-Permian, and end-Cretaceous extinctions were statistically significant outliers in biodiversity trends, while the Late Devonian and end-Triassic extinctions occurred in time periods which were already stressed by relatively high extinction and low origination. Computer models run by Foote (2005) determined that abrupt pulses of extinction fit

4248-502: The other major seed plant clade, the gymnosperms , by having flowers , xylem consisting of vessel elements instead of tracheids , endosperm within their seeds, and fruits that completely envelop the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous , over 300 million years ago. In the Cretaceous , angiosperms diversified explosively , becoming

4320-686: The pattern of prehistoric biodiversity much better than a gradual and continuous background extinction rate with smooth peaks and troughs. This strongly supports the utility of rapid, frequent mass extinctions as a major driver of diversity changes. Pulsed origination events are also supported, though to a lesser degree which is largely dependent on pulsed extinctions. Similarly, Stanley (2007) used extinction and origination data to investigate turnover rates and extinction responses among different evolutionary faunas and taxonomic groups. In contrast to previous authors, his diversity simulations show support for an overall exponential rate of biodiversity growth through

4392-474: The physical environment. He expressed this in The Origin of Species : Various authors have suggested that extinction events occurred periodically, every 26 to 30 million years, or that diversity fluctuates episodically about every 62 million years. Various ideas, mostly regarding astronomical influences, attempt to explain the supposed pattern, including the presence of a hypothetical companion star to

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4464-566: The rate of extinction between and among different clades . Mammals , descended from the synapsids , and birds , a side-branch of the theropod dinosaurs, emerged as the two predominant clades of terrestrial tetrapods. Despite the common presentation focusing only on these five events, no measure of extinction shows any definite line separating them from the many other Phanerozoic extinction events that appear only slightly lesser catastrophes; further, using different methods of calculating an extinction's impact can lead to other events featuring in

4536-588: The rock exposure of Western Europe indicates that many of the minor events for which a biological explanation has been sought are most readily explained by sampling bias . Research completed after the seminal 1982 paper (Sepkoski and Raup) has concluded that a sixth mass extinction event due to human activities is currently under way: Extinction events can be tracked by several methods, including geological change, ecological impact, extinction vs. origination ( speciation ) rates, and most commonly diversity loss among taxonomic units. Most early papers used families as

4608-623: The same short time interval. To circumvent this issue, background rates of diversity change (extinction/origination) were estimated for stages or substages without mass extinctions, and then assumed to apply to subsequent stages with mass extinctions. For example, the Santonian and Campanian stages were each used to estimate diversity changes in the Maastrichtian prior to the K-Pg mass extinction. Subtracting background extinctions from extinction tallies had

4680-568: The spring gentian, are adapted to the alkaline conditions found on calcium -rich chalk and limestone , which give rise to often dry topographies such as limestone pavement . As for their growth habit , the flowering plants range from small, soft herbaceous plants , often living as annuals or biennials that set seed and die after one growing season, to large perennial woody trees that may live for many centuries and grow to many metres in height. Some species grow tall without being self-supporting like trees by climbing on other plants in

4752-602: The top five. Fossil records of older events are more difficult to interpret. This is because: It has been suggested that the apparent variations in marine biodiversity may actually be an artifact, with abundance estimates directly related to quantity of rock available for sampling from different time periods. However, statistical analysis shows that this can only account for 50% of the observed pattern, and other evidence such as fungal spikes (geologically rapid increase in fungal abundance) provides reassurance that most widely accepted extinction events are real. A quantification of

4824-614: The trigger for reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to the glaciation and anoxia observed in the geological record.   The largest extinction was the Kellwasser Event ( Frasnian - Famennian , or F-F, 372 Ma), an extinction event at the end of the Frasnian, about midway through the Late Devonian. This extinction annihilated coral reefs and numerous tropical benthic (seabed-living) animals such as jawless fish, brachiopods , and trilobites . The other major extinction

4896-453: The unit of taxonomy, based on compendiums of marine animal families by Sepkoski (1982, 1992). Later papers by Sepkoski and other authors switched to genera , which are more precise than families and less prone to taxonomic bias or incomplete sampling relative to species. These are several major papers estimating loss or ecological impact from fifteen commonly-discussed extinction events. Different methods used by these papers are described in

4968-487: The vacant niches created the opportunity for archosaurs to become ascendant . In the seas, the percentage of animals that were sessile (unable to move about) dropped from 67% to 50%. The whole late Permian was a difficult time, at least for marine life, even before the P–T boundary extinction. More recent research has indicated that the End-Capitanian extinction event that preceded the "Great Dying" likely constitutes

5040-457: Was another paper which attempted to remove two common errors in previous estimates of extinction severity. The first error was the unjustified removal of "singletons", genera unique to only a single time slice. Their removal would mask the influence of groups with high turnover rates or lineages cut short early in their diversification. The second error was the difficulty in distinguishing background extinctions from brief mass extinction events within

5112-483: Was coined in the form "Angiospermae" by Paul Hermann in 1690, including only flowering plants whose seeds were enclosed in capsules. The term angiosperm fundamentally changed in meaning in 1827 with Robert Brown , when angiosperm came to mean a seed plant with enclosed ovules. In 1851, with Wilhelm Hofmeister 's work on embryo-sacs, Angiosperm came to have its modern meaning of all the flowering plants including Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. The APG system treats

5184-506: Was the Hangenberg Event (Devonian-Carboniferous, or D-C, 359 Ma), which brought an end to the Devonian as a whole. This extinction wiped out the armored placoderm fish and nearly led to the extinction of the newly evolved ammonoids . These two closely spaced extinction events collectively eliminated about 19% of all families, 50% of all genera and at least 70% of all species. Sepkoski and Raup (1982) did not initially consider

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