Dinosaur diversification linked with the Carnian Pluvial Episode

Dinosaurs diversified in two steps during the Triassic. They originated about 245 Ma, during the recovery from the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, and then remained insignificant until they exploded in diversity and ecological importance during the Late Triassic. Hitherto, this Late Triassic explo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2018-04, Vol.9 (1), p.1499-10, Article 1499
Main Authors: Bernardi, Massimo, Gianolla, Piero, Petti, Fabio Massimo, Mietto, Paolo, Benton, Michael J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/2462
631/181/414
Animal Distribution - physiology
Animals
Aridity
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Climate
Climate change
Climate Change - history
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs - anatomy & histology
Dinosaurs - classification
Dinosaurs - physiology
Extinction, Biological
Footprints
Fossils
Fossils - history
Geologic Sediments - analysis
Herbivores
History, Ancient
Humanities and Social Sciences
Mass extinctions
multidisciplinary
Permian
Phylogeny
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Triassic
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Summary:Dinosaurs diversified in two steps during the Triassic. They originated about 245 Ma, during the recovery from the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, and then remained insignificant until they exploded in diversity and ecological importance during the Late Triassic. Hitherto, this Late Triassic explosion was poorly constrained and poorly dated. Here we provide evidence that it followed the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE), dated to 234–232 Ma, a time when climates switched from arid to humid and back to arid again. Our evidence comes from a combined analysis of skeletal evidence and footprint occurrences, and especially from the exquisitely dated ichnofaunas of the Italian Dolomites. These provide evidence of tetrapod faunal compositions through the Carnian and Norian, and show that dinosaur footprints appear exactly at the time of the CPE. We argue then that dinosaurs diversified explosively in the mid Carnian, at a time of major climate and floral change and the extinction of key herbivores, which the dinosaurs opportunistically replaced. Dinosaurs originated ~245 million years ago (mya) but did not diversify until some time in the Late Triassic. Here, Bernardi and colleagues synthesize palaeontological and dated stratigraphic evidence to show that dinosaur diversification followed the Carnian Pluvial Episode 234–232 mya.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-03996-1