Paleozoic Life History

Chapter 21
 Introduction
• The beginning of the
Paleozoic marked an
abrupt explosion in life
forms
• During the Paleozoic
many of the present
species evolved
• marine skeletonized
animals
• complex reptiles
• land plants
• The Paleozoic era was
also a time of major
extinctions
• especially at the end of
Paleozoic
Introduction
• The evolution of marine and terrestrial
life forms in the Paleozoic were affected
by a combination of
• Biologic events
• evolution
• Geologic events
• opening and closure of oceans
• transgressions and regressions of epeiric seas
• latitudinal changes in position of continents
• Climate
• ocean circulation
• atmospheric circulation
• wet/dry
Cambrian Explosion
• The beginning of Paleozoic is
marked by the abrupt
appearance of animals with
skeletons in the fossil record
• the “Cambrian Explosion”
• Evolutionary “Big Bang”
• probably took place over
millions of years
• the Cambrian explosion not
well understood. a mechanism
that would trigger this event is
not agreed upon
• maybe related to Early
Cambrian global warming and
transgressions of the cratons
opening up new shallow sea
that could be inhabited
 The Emergence of Shelly Fauna
• The earliest organisms with
hard parts are Proterozoic
calcareous tubes found
associated with Ediacaran
faunas (Cloudina)
• Followed by Early Cambrian
skeletonized microscopic
fossils
• Hard body parts have many
advantages
• protection against UV rays
allowing animals to move into
shallower water
• prevent drying out in an
intertidal environment
• provides protection against
predators
• skeleton support for muscles 
larger animals
 The Present Marine Ecosystem
• Organisms classified according to where they live,
how they get around, and how they feed

Life Habits of organisms

•Pelagic: live in the water column.
•Nektonic: swimmers.
•Planktonic: floaters. (Zooplanktonic & Phytoplanktonic)
•Benthic: live on the sea floor.
Epifauna, epiflora: live directly on the sea floor.
Infauna: live within bottom sediments, e.g. burrowers
Semi-infauna: spend part of their time above the
substrate, and part below.
 The Present Marine Ecosystem
 Four basic feeding groups:
 suspension feeders remove or consume microscopic
plants and animals and dissolved nutrients from water
 herbivores are plant eaters
 carnivore-scavengers are meat eaters
 sediment-deposit feeders ingest sediment and extract
the nutrient from it

 Marine organisms,
living and fossil, can
be classified by the
criteria listed above
The Present Marine Ecosystem
 Trophic levels describe the levels of food
production and consumption within a
feeding hierarchy
– primary producers manufacture their own
food - phytoplankton
– primary consumers feed on primary
producers and are mostly suspension
feeders
– secondary consumers
– predators
– transformers and decomposers
 Cambrian Marine Community
The Cambrian was a time during which many new
body plans evolved as animals moved into new niches
• Cambrian fossils
dominated by
• trilobites - benthonic
mobile sediment-deposit
feeders that crawled or
swam across the sea
floor.— Age of Trilobite!
• brachiopods - primitive
benthonic suspension
feeders
• minor archaeocyathids -
benthonic suspension
feeders and reef builders
 Chengjiang Fauna
Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, SW China, ~
515 to 520 Million year ago (Early Cambrian)

What makes the Chenjiang fauna so special is that

it existed shortly after the first appearance of
animals with hard parts, making the onset of the so-
called Cambrian Explosion, and it is the oldest
known soft-bodied fauna from post-Precambrian
strata. –McNamara & Long, 1998. The Evolution
Revolution.
 The Burgess Shale Biota
• The Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (Yoho National park, BC)
Consists of a rare preservation of soft-bodied organisms
• The area was in Middle Cambrian situated at the
base of a marine sea cliff
• Fossils are well preserved due to
• fine grained character of the deposits
• minute details preserved
• lack of oxygen at the seafloor
• no scavengers

Cambrian
 The Burgess Shale Biota
• More significant is the preservation of soft-bodied animals and
plants which are rarely preserved
• Impressions on the bedding planes include creatures so
different that many of them have been placed into new phyla
• Cambrian phyla represent the basic stock and body plans from
which all present-day invertebrates evolved
• Debate exists on how many Cambrian phyla arose
• do the strange looking Cambrian organisms represent the root stock
and basic body plan from which all present-day invertebrates evolved
• Life was much more diverse in phyla during the Cambrian than it is
today. Many Cambrian phyla became extinct later in the Cambrian
Ordovician Marine Community
Ordovician

• A rise in world sea level in

the Middle Ordovician lead
to the most widespread
inundation of the craton
• Tippecanoe sequence
• Created uniformly warm,
vast epeiric seas that
opened new marine habitats
• These new seas were
quickly filled by a large
variety of organisms
 Ordovician Marine Community
• The Cambrian invertebrate
community underwent striking
changes in the Ordovician
• Drastic increase in the diversity
of the shelly fauna
• Bryozoans, stromatoporoids,
tabulate and rugose corals
became important reef builders
• built patch reefs
• Small patch reef similar to the
Cambrian patch reefs but
dominated by different species
Ordovician Radiation—Great Ordovician Biodiversification
Event
Massive extinctions in the marine ecosystem mark the end
of the Ordovician. Likely related to glaciation in Gondwana
and a fall in global sea level
Late Ordovician Mass extinction: two episodes

occurred about 440-450 million years ago. the second

most devastating extinction to marine communities in
earth history, caused the disappearance of one third
of all brachiopod and bryozoan families, as well as
numerous groups of conodonts, trilobites, and
graptolites. Many tabulate and rugose corals. In total,
more than one hundred families of marine
invertebrates perished in this extinction.

http://hannover.park.org/Canada/Museum/extinction/tablecont.html
Speculated Causes of the Ordovician Extinction:

Glaciation and Sea-Level Lowering Hypothesis---the

glaciation of the continent Gondwana at the end of the
period. A combination of this lowering of sea-level,
reducing ecospace on continental shelves, in conjunction
with the cooling caused by the glaciation itself are likely
driving agents for the Ordovician mass extinction.

No unambiguous evidence for impacts.

 Silurian and Devonian
Marine Communities
• Rapid diversification and
recovery followed the late
Ordovician mass extinction
• Reef building by tabulate and
rugose corals
• period of major reef building with
formation of larger reefs than
previously
• Ammonoids evolved from
Nautiloids
• Important guide fossils due to
• their rapid evolution and thereby
short stratigraphic range
• widespread distribution
• distinct suture patterns
 Silurian and Devonian Marine Communities

 Eurypterids became
abundant in Silurian
 Devonian—Age of Fish
 Mass extinction at the end
of the Devonian resulted
in a near worldwide
collapse of the massive
reefs
 Extinction mainly affected
tropical marine organisms
 Polar communities were
little affected
Late Devonian Mass Extinction:
At Frasnian/Famenian boundary.
Worst for tropical marine taxa.

Major taxa extinguished:

Major reef-building organisms:
stromatoporoids. most rugose corals, most
tabulate corals, (reef-building was relatively
uncommon until the evolution of the scleractinian
(modern) corals in Triassic)
Pentamerid brachiopods
Most conodonts
Most graptolites
Many trilobites
Placoderm fish
Armored jawless fish
 Possible causes:
1.Glaciation: Oxygen and Carbon isotopes suggest
oceanographic changes. Possible beginning of Late
Paleozoic Gondwanan glaciations (e.g. glacial deposits of
this age in northern Brazil).

2. Meteorite Impact
Meteorite impacts at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary
have also been suggested as possible agents for the
Devonian mass extinction. Currently, the data
surrounding a possible extra-terrestrial impact remains
inconclusive, and the mechanisms which produced the
Devonian mass extinction are still under debate.

McGhee, G. Jr. 1996. The Late Devonian Mass Extinction: the F/F crisis.
Columbian Univ. Press. NY, 303pp.
 Carboniferous and Permian
Marine Communities
• Following the Late Devonian extinction renewed
diversity and recovery with adaptations mark the
Late Paleozoic marine communities
• brachiopods and ammonoids quickly recovered
• bryozoans and crinoids reach their greatest
diversity in the Carboniferous
• decline of stromatoporoids and the tabulate
and rugose corals led to a change from the
massive reefs of the Devonian to patch reefs
 Carboniferous Land
Swamp forests as well as terrestrial habitats became
common and widespread ----Coal forming period.
The first land snails appeared, and insects with wings
that can't fold back such as dragonflies and mayflies
flourished and radiated. These insects, as well as
millipedes, scorpions, and spiders became important
in the ecosystem.
 The End Permian Mass Extinction
• The greatest recorded mass extinction to affect
Earth occurred at the end of the Permian. “Mother
of mass extinctions”
• about 50% of all marine invertebrate families
• about 90% of all marine invertebrate species
• 65% of all amphibians and reptiles
• 33% of all insects
• Some of species that did
not survive end of Permian
• Trilobites
• Fusulinids
• rugose and tabulate corals
• many bryozoan and
brachiopod orders
• blastoids
 The Permian Marine Invertebrate
Extinction Event
 Causes for this have been speculated to be:
 reduction in marine shelf area as Pangaea formed
 global drop in sea level due to glaciation and thereby reduction in
marine shelf due to regression
 Not likely as most of the continents was already assembled and large –
scale formation of glaciers occurred in the Pennsylvanian
 Neither a meteorite impact as extinction took place over 8 million years
 Instead likely caused by global warming related to release of CO2 by
volcanoes (large scale volcanism in Siberia & S. China etc.); or by methane-
driven oceanic eruptions—Ryskin, 2003)

Late Permian
 Vertebrate Evolution
 Chordates have, during at least part of
their life, a notochord, dorsal hollow
nerve chord, and gill slits
– Vertebrates are animals with backbones
and a sub-phylum of chordates
– ancestors were soft-bodied and left few
fossils
 thus little know about their early evolution
 Fish
 The oldest vertebrates are fish
 Fish range from the Late Cambrian to the present and
consist of five classes. All five classes were in existence by
the Silurian
 The earliest fish are found in shallow nearshore
environments
 Earliest freshwater fish are from the Silurian
Fish • Earliest fish likely moved
along the sea bottom and
sucked up small bits of food
and sediments through their
jawless mouth
• Evolution of the jaw in the
Silurian was a major
development in the
evolution of fish
• Jaw evolved likely from the
first three gill arches
• initially an improvement of
respiration
• Jaw also proved other
major advantages
• chew food
• become predators
• Increased food
consumption and opened
up new ecological niches
 Fish
 Some of the Devonian fish evolved into
ferocious predators
 Devonian is sometimes called the “age
of Fish”
 Amphibians
Vertebrates Invade the Land
 Amphibians were the first vertebrates
to live on land
 preceded by plants, insects, and snails
 Oldest amphibian fossils
(Ichthyostega) are found within Late
Devonian sandstone on Greenland
 Evolved from lobe-finned fish, for which
muscles extend into the fin allowing
greater flexibility of movement
 Barriers they had to overcome:
 desiccation
 reproduction
 effects of gravity
 extraction of oxygen by lungs rather than
gills
 Earliest amphibians were large, sluggish
creatures living in swamps and streams
 Evolution of the Reptiles
• Reptiles evolved in the Late Mississippian
from Amphibians
• Amphibians had to return to water to lay their
eggs
• Reptiles on the other hand evolved the amniote
egg freeing them from the constraint of
returning to water to reproduce
• reptiles were able to colonize all parts of the
land
 Evolution of the Reptiles
• The earliest reptiles were small, agile, and
fed on grubs and insects
• During the Permian reptiles diversified and
began displacing amphibians
• Success due to
• advanced reproductive methods
• more advanced jaws and teeth
• ability to move rapidly on land
• Pelycosaurs evolved from this group and
were the dominant reptile by Permian
 Evolution of the Reptiles
• Pelycosaurs became extinct during the Permian and
were succeeded by the therapsids
• mammal-like reptiles that quickly evolved into herbivorous
and carnivorous forms
• they displayed fewer bones in the skull, enlargement of
the lower jawbone, differentiation of the teeth, and a
more vertical position of their legs for greater flexibility
• therapsids may have been endothermic (warm-blooded)
• explain their distribution over wide latitudes
• The Permian
extinction eliminated
about 66% of all
amphibians and
reptiles
• 90% of all marine
invertebrates
 Plant Evolution
• Earliest land plants should have already existed in Mid-Late
Earliest land plants should have already existed in Mid-Late
Ordovician (marine fresh water). Earliest known vascular land
plants: Cooksonia, Mid-Silurian of Wales and Ireland.
• Plants had the same water-to-land transition problems that animals
did
• vascular land plants have a tissue system to move water
• nonvascular plants do not have a tissue system
to transport water and are usually small and
live in moist environments
• seedless vascular plants such as ferns closely
resemble green algae in their pigmentation,
metabolism, and reproductive cycle

• green algae have also been able to

make the transition from salt water
to fresh water
• thus modern terrestrial land plants
likely evolved from them
Cooksonia
 Silurian and Devonian Floras

 Seedless vascular
plants require
moisture for
fertilization  Seed bearing plants
– the sperm must – gymnosperms produce male
travel to the egg cones which provide sperm in
on the surface of pollen to an egg in the female
the gametophyte cone
to produce a
successful
sporophyte
 Silurian and Devonian Floras
• The earliest vascular land plants are from the Silurian
• small, simple leafless stalks with a spore-producing structure at the tip

 Didn't have a root system but a rhizome

(underground part of the stem) transferred water
from the soil to the plant and anchored it
 lived in wet, marshy freshwater areas
 leaves, roots, and secondary growth all evolved
gradually during the Late Silurian and Early
Devonian
 From the Early to the Late Devonian a change from
mainly small, low growing plants to large tree-sized
plants more than 10 m tall occurred
 Evolution of the seeds in the Late Devonian allowed
land plants to spread over all parts of the land
Late Carboniferous and Permian Floras
 Periods when most of the world’s coal was
formed from plant remains
 Wet coastal areas formed by melting of
Gondwana’s glaciers were ideal for the growth
of seedless vascular plants
• Lycopsids--dominant plant in the
swamps that grew up to 30m and lacked
branches except at the top
• leaves were elongate, similar to palm
• represented by small pines today
• sphenopsids was another important coal
forming group which have a jointed
stem
Late Carboniferous and Permian Floras
• Seed-bearing vascular plants grew on higher and
more dry ground
• Gymnosperm trees
• cordaites grew up to 50m tall
• Glossopteris which provided evidence of continental drift
• Many of these plants that were so abundant in
the Carboniferous became extinct or declined in
abundance in the Permian
• Caused by a climatic change towards warmer and
drier climates
• Those Gymnosperms who were able to tolerate
the change climate became dominant plants in
the Mesozoic