Global biogeography of Albian ammonoids; a network-based approach

Large-scale biogeographic provinces of Cretaceous ammonoids, as currently defined in the literature, were delimited using qualitative assessments of taxonomic inventories. Using aggregated species occurrences in the Paleobiology Database, we generated a geographic network to quantify connectivity of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2017-07, Vol.45 (7), p.659-662
Main Authors: Rojas, Alexis, Patarroyo, Pedro, Mao, Liang, Bengtson, Peter, Kowalewski, Michal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abiotic factors
Albian
Ammonoidea
Asymmetry
Basins
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Cephalopoda
Cluster analysis
Cretaceous
Data
Earth
faunal provinces
Frameworks
global
Infomap
Invertebrata
invertebrate
Invertebrates
Lower Cretaceous
Marine invertebrates
Mathematical models
Mesozoic
Mollusca
Mollusks
networks
Ocean basins
Paleobiology
Paleontology
Polar environments
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative research
Skewed distributions
Stratigraphy
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Summary:Large-scale biogeographic provinces of Cretaceous ammonoids, as currently defined in the literature, were delimited using qualitative assessments of taxonomic inventories. Using aggregated species occurrences in the Paleobiology Database, we generated a geographic network to quantify connectivity of Albian epicontinental basins and used the flow-based Infomap algorithm to delineate bioprovinces. Despite taxonomic, stratigraphic, and geographic limitations of the data, the Infomap bioprovinces are largely concordant with the traditional, qualitatively derived biogeographic model, including the Boreal-Pacific Subrealm, Arctic Subrealm, Tethyan Realm, and Austral Realm. An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis applied to the same occurrence data failed to replicate the Infomap bioprovinces or reproduce the traditional qualitative model. The observed asymmetrical distribution of the Infomap bioprovinces is consistent with the known hemispheric differences in paleogeographic and oceanographic features of the Albian Earth. The geographic network derived from ammonoid data is twice as dense as the one derived for Albian benthic marine invertebrates and thus more effective in delineating global biogeographic units. The network-based approach establishes a reproducible quantitative framework for delineating geographic boundaries of marine bioprovinces, tracking biogeographic changes over evolutionary time scales, and identifying biotic and abiotic factors that influence global partitioning of marine biodiversity.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G38944.1