The Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, also called the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) or Grande Coupure (French for "great cut"), is the transition between the end of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene, an extinction event and faunal turnover occurring between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago.[1] It was marked by large-scale extinction and floral and faunal turnover, although it was relatively minor in comparison to the largest mass extinctions.[2]
Causes
Glaciation
The boundary between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs is marked by the glaciation of Antarctica and the consequent beginning of the Late Cenozoic Ice Age.[3] This enormous shift in climatic regime is the leading candidate for the extinction event's cause. Though ephemeral ice sheets may have existed on the Antarctic continent during parts of the Middle and Late Eocene,[4] this interval of severe global cooling marked the beginning of permanent ice sheet coverage of Antarctica,[5][6] and thus the end of the greenhouse climate of the Early Palaeogene.[7] The global cooling also correlated with marked drying conditions in low-latitudes Asia,[8] though a causal relationship between the two has been contradicted by some research.[9]
A leading model of climate cooling at this time predicts a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which slowly declined over the course of the Middle to Late Eocene.[10][11][12] Significant cooling took place in the final hundreds of thousands of years prior to the start of major Antarctic glaciation.[13] This cooling reached some threshold approximately 34 million years ago,[14][15][4] precipitating the formation of a large ice sheet in East Antarctica in response to falling carbon dioxide levels.[16][17] The cause of the drop in pCO2 was the drift of the Indian Subcontinent into equatorial latitudes, supercharging the silicate weathering of the Deccan Traps.[18] Another factor was the opening of the Drake Passage and the creation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which had the effect of creating ocean gyres that promote upwelling of cold bottom waters and diminishing heat transport to Antarctica by isolating the water around it.[19] Likewise, the Tasmanian Gateway also opened up around the time of the EOT.[20] Ocean circulation changes were, however, not as significant in engendering cooling as the decline in pCO2.[21] On top of that, the timing of the creation of the ACC is uncertain.[22]
Evidence points to the glaciation of Antarctica occurring in two steps, with the first step, the less pronounced and more modest step of the two, taking place at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary itself. This first step is referred to as EOT-1.[4] Carbon dioxide concentrations dropped from about 885 ppm to about 560 ppm.[23] The Oligocene Oi-1 event, an oxygen isotope excursion that occurred around 33.55 million years ago,[24] was the second major pulse of Antarctic ice sheet formation.[4]
These large climate changes have been linked to biotic turnovers. Even before the Eocene-Oligocene boundary itself, during the early Priabonian, extinction rates went up in connection with falling global temperatures.[23] Radiolarians suffered major losses thanks to a decrease in nutrient availability in deep and intermediate waters.[25] In the Gulf of Mexico, marine turnover is associated with climatic change, though the ultimate cause according to the study was not the drop in average temperatures themselves but colder winters and increased seasonality.[2]
On land, the increased seasonality brought on by this abrupt cooling caused the Grande Coupure faunal turnover in Europe.[26] In the Ebro Basin, major aridification occurred amidst the Grande Coupure, suggesting causality.[1] The remarkable cooling period in the ocean is correlated with pronounced mammalian faunal replacement within continental Asia as well. The Asian biotic reorganization events are comparable to the Grande Coupure in Europe and the Mongolian Remodeling of mammalian communities.[27]
Extraterrestrial impact
Another speculation points to several large meteorite impacts near this time, including those of the Chesapeake Bay crater 40 km (25 mi) and the Popigai impact structure 100 km (62 mi) of central Siberia, which scattered debris perhaps as far as Europe. New dating of the Popigai meteor strengthens its association with the extinction.[28] However, other studies have failed to find any association between the extinction event and any impact event.[29]
Solar activity
Imprints of sunspot cycles from the Bohai Bay Basin (BBB) show no evidence that any significant change in solar activity occurred across the EOT.[30]
Extinction patterns
Terrestrial biota
Grande Coupure
The Grande Coupure, or 'great break' in French,[31] with a major European turnover in mammalian fauna about 33.5 Ma, marks the end of the last phase of Eocene assemblages, the Priabonian, and the arrival in Europe of Asian species. The Grande Coupure is characterized by widespread extinctions and allopatric speciation in small isolated relict populations.[32] It was given its name in 1910 by the Swiss palaeontologist Hans Georg Stehlin, to characterise the dramatic turnover of European mammalian fauna, which he placed at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary.[33] A comparable turnover in Asian fauna has since been called the "Mongolian Remodelling".
The Grande Coupure marks a break between endemic European faunas before the break and mixed faunas with a strong Asian component afterwards. J. J. Hooker and his team summarized the break:[34]
- "Pre-Grande Coupure faunas are dominated by the perissodactyl family Palaeotheriidae (distant horse relatives), six families of artiodactyls (cloven-hoofed mammals) (Anoplotheriidae, Xiphodontidae, Choeropotamidae, Cebochoeridae, Dichobunidae and Amphimerycidae), the rodent family Pseudosciuridae, the primate families Omomyidae and Adapidae, and the archontan family Nyctitheriidae.
- "Post-Grande Coupure faunas include the true rhinoceros (family Rhinocerotidae), three artiodactyl families (Entelodontidae, Anthracotheriidae and Gelocidae) related respectively to pigs, hippos and ruminants, the rodent families Eomyidae, Cricetidae (hamsters) and Castoridae (beavers), and the lipotyphlan family Erinaceidae (hedgehogs). The speciose genus Palaeotherium plus Anoplotherium and the families Xiphodontidae and Amphimerycidae were observed to disappear completely.
- "Only the marsupial family Herpetotheriidae, the artiodactyl family Cainotheriidae, and the rodent families Theridomyidae and Gliridae (dormice) crossed the faunal divide undiminished."
An element of the paradigm of the Grande Coupure was the apparent extinction of all European primates at the Coupure. However, the 1999 discovery of a mouse-sized early Oligocene omomyid, reflecting the better survival chances of small mammals, undercut the Grand Coupure paradigm.[35]
Additionally, a second dispersal event of Asian taxa into Europe, known as the Bachitherium dispersal event, occurred later, around 31 Ma. Unlike the Grande Coupure, which took place via Central and Northern Asia, this later dispersal occurred via a southern corridor.[36]
It has been suggested that this was caused by climate change associated with the earliest polar glaciations and a major fall in sea levels, or by competition with taxa dispersing from Asia. However, few argue for an isolated single cause. Other possible causes are related to the impact of one or more large bolides in northern hemisphere at Popigai, Toms Canyon and Chesapeake Bay.[37] Improved correlation of northwest European successions to global events confirms the Grande Coupure as occurring in the earliest Oligocene, with a hiatus of about 350 millennia prior to the first record of post-Grande Coupure Asian immigrant taxa.[34] Research suggests that in the Ebro Basin of Spain, the turnover lagged the Eocene-Oligocene boundary by at most 500 kyr.[1]
Marine biota
In the marine realm, the frequency of drilling in recovery faunas, especially among bivalves, was drastically higher than in assemblages before the extinction event, a phenomenon attributed to a high extinction rate among escalated prey taxa with highly evolved defences against predators.[38] Veneroid bivalves experienced a short-term size increase during the biotic recovery.[39] Orthophragminid foraminifera disappeared in the extinction event; in Alpine carbonates, bryozoan facies show an expansion in response to the loss of orthophragminids.[40]
Some sites contain evidence that the Eocene–Oligocene extinction was not a sudden event but a prolonged biotic transition drawn out over as much as 6 million years. Localities near Eugene, Oregon, record a plant extinction 33.4 Ma and a marine invertebrate turnover 33.2 Ma; both of these turnovers post-date the supposed extinction event by hundreds of thousands of years.[41]
References
- 1 2 3 Costa, Elisenda; Garcés, Miguel; Sáez, Alberto; Cabrera, Lluís; López-Blanco, Miguel (15 February 2011). "The age of the "Grande Coupure" mammal turnover: New constraints from the Eocene–Oligocene record of the Eastern Ebro Basin (NE Spain)". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 301 (1–4): 97–107. Bibcode:2011PPP...301...97C. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.01.005. hdl:2445/34510. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
- 1 2 Ivany, Linda C.; Patterson, William P.; Lohmann, Kyger C. (2000). "Cooler winters as a possible cause of mass extinctions at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary" (PDF). Nature. 407 (6806): 887–890. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..887I. doi:10.1038/35038044. hdl:2027.42/62707. PMID 11057663. S2CID 4408282.
- ↑ Lear, Caroline H.; Bailey, Trevor R.; Pearson, Paul N.; Coxall, Helen K.; Rosenthal, Yair (1 March 2008). "Cooling and ice growth across the Eocene-Oligocene transition". Geology. 36 (3): 251. doi:10.1130/G24584A.1. ISSN 0091-7613. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 Ladant, Jean-Baptiste; Donnadieu, Yannick; Lefebvre, Vincent; Dumas, Christophe (11 August 2014). "The respective role of atmospheric carbon dioxide and orbital parameters on ice sheet evolution at the Eocene-Oligocene transition". Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 29 (8): 810–823. Bibcode:2014PalOc..29..810L. doi:10.1002/2013PA002593. S2CID 54093596.
- ↑ Zachos, James C.; Quinn, Terrence M.; Salamy, Karen A. (1996-06-01). "High-resolution (104 years) deep-sea foraminiferal stable isotope records of the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition". Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 11 (3): 251–266. Bibcode:1996PalOc..11..251Z. doi:10.1029/96PA00571. ISSN 1944-9186. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ Shackleton, N. J. (1 October 1986). "Boundaries and Events in the Paleogene Paleogene stable isotope events". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 57 (1): 91–102. Bibcode:1986PPP....57...91S. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(86)90008-8. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ Prothero, Donald Ross (May 1994). "The Late Eocene-Oligocene Extinctions". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 22: 145–165. Bibcode:1994AREPS..22..145P. doi:10.1146/annurev.ea.22.050194.001045. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ↑ Li, Y. X.; Jiao, W. J.; Liu, Z. H.; Jin, J. H.; Wang, D. H.; He, Y. X.; Quan, C. (2016-02-11). "Terrestrial responses of low-latitude Asia to the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition revealed by integrated chronostratigraphy". Climate of the Past. 12 (2): 255–272. Bibcode:2016CliPa..12..255L. doi:10.5194/cp-12-255-2016. hdl:10722/231824. ISSN 1814-9332.
- ↑ Zhang, Chunxia; Guo, Zhengtang (1 October 2014). "Clay mineral changes across the Eocene–Oligocene transition in the sedimentary sequence at Xining occurred prior to global cooling". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 411: 18–29. Bibcode:2014PPP...411...18Z. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.06.031. ISSN 0031-0182. Retrieved 25 December 2023 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- ↑ Villa, Giuliana; Fioroni, Chiara; Persico, Davide; Roberts, Andrew P.; Florindo, Fabio (20 December 2013). "Middle Eocene to Late Oligocene Antarctic glaciation/deglaciation and Southern Ocean productivity". Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 29 (3): 223–237. doi:10.1002/2013PA002518.
- ↑ Cappelli, C.; Bown, P. R.; Westerhold, T.; Bohaty, S. M.; De Riu, M.; Loba, V.; Yamamoto, Y.; Agnini, C. (15 November 2019). "The Early to Middle Eocene Transition: An Integrated Calcareous Nannofossil and Stable Isotope Record From the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1410)". Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 34 (12): 1913–1930. Bibcode:2019PaPa...34.1913C. doi:10.1029/2019PA003686. hdl:11577/3322441. S2CID 210245165.
- ↑ Pagani, Mark; Zachos, James C.; Freeman, Katherine H.; Tipple, Brett; Bohaty, Stephen (22 July 2005). "Marked Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations During the Paleogene". Science. 309 (5734): 600–603. doi:10.1126/science.1110063. ISSN 0036-8075. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ↑ Evans, David; Wade, Bridget S.; Henehan, Michael; Erez, Jonathan; Müller, Wolfgang (6 April 2016). "Revisiting carbonate chemistry controls on planktic foraminifera Mg / Ca: implications for sea surface temperature and hydrology shifts over the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum and Eocene–Oligocene transition". Climate of the Past. 12 (4): 819–835. Bibcode:2016CliPa..12..819E. doi:10.5194/cp-12-819-2016. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
- ↑ Hutchinson, David K.; Coxall, Helen K.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Steinthorsdottir, Margret; De Boer, Agatha M.; Baatsen, Michiel; Von der Heydt, Anna; Huber, Matthew; Kennedy-Asser, Alan T.; Kunzmann, Lutz; Ladant, Jean-Baptiste; Lear, Caroline H.; Moraweck, Karolin; Pearson, Paul N.; Piga, Emanuela; Pound, Matthew J.; Salzmann, Ulrich; Scher, Howie D.; Sijp, Willem P.; Śliwińska, Kasia K.; Wilson, Paul A.; Zhang, Zhongshi (28 January 2021). "The Eocene–Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model–data comparisons". Climate of the Past. 17 (1): 269–315. Bibcode:2021CliPa..17..269H. doi:10.5194/cp-17-269-2021. S2CID 234099337. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ Pearson, Paul N.; Foster, Gavin L.; Wade, Bridget S. (13 September 2009). "Atmospheric carbon dioxide through the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition". Nature. 461 (7267): 1110–1113. Bibcode:2009Natur.461.1110P. doi:10.1038/nature08447. PMID 19749741. S2CID 205218274. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ Galeotti, Simone; Deconto, Robert; Naish, Timothy; Stocchi, Paolo; Florindo, Fabio; Pagani, Mark; Barrett, Peter; Bohaty, Steven M.; Lanci, Luca; Pollard, David; Sandroni, Sonia; Talarico, Franco M.; Zachos, James C. (10 March 2016). "Antarctic Ice Sheet variability across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary climate transition". Science. 352 (6281): 76–80. Bibcode:2016Sci...352...76G. doi:10.1126/science.aab0669. PMID 27034370. S2CID 24154493.
- ↑ Wilson, Douglas S.; Luyendyk, Bruce P. (25 August 2009). "West Antarctic paleotopography estimated at the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition". Geophysical Research Letters. 36 (16): 1–4. Bibcode:2009GeoRL..3616302W. doi:10.1029/2009GL039297. S2CID 163074. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ↑ Kent, Dennis V.; Muttoni, Giovanni (21 October 2008). "Equatorial convergence of India and early Cenozoic climate trends". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (42): 16065–16070. doi:10.1073/pnas.0805382105. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2570972. PMID 18809910. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ↑ Barker, P.F.; Thomas, E. (June 2004). "Origin, signature and palaeoclimatic influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current". Earth-Science Reviews. 66 (1–2): 143–162. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2003.10.003. Retrieved 1 January 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- ↑ Kennett, James P.; Exon, Neville F. (2004), Exon, Neville F.; Kennett, James P.; Malone, Mitchell J. (eds.), "Paleoceanographic evolution of the Tasmanian Seaway and its climatic implications", Geophysical Monograph Series, Washington, D. C.: American Geophysical Union, vol. 151, pp. 345–367, doi:10.1029/151gm19, ISBN 978-0-87590-416-0, retrieved 2024-01-02
- ↑ Huber, Matthew; Nof, Doron (February 2006). "The ocean circulation in the southern hemisphere and its climatic impacts in the Eocene". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 231 (1–2): 9–28. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.07.037. Retrieved 1 January 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- ↑ Barker, Peter F.; Filippelli, Gabriel M.; Florindo, Fabio; Martin, Ellen E.; Scher, Howard D. (October–November 2007). "Onset and role of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 54 (21–22): 2388–2398. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2007.07.028. Retrieved 1 January 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- 1 2 Hutchinson, David K.; Coxall, Helen K.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Steinthorsdottir, Margret; de Boer, Agatha M.; Baatsen, Michiel; von der Heydt, Anna; Huber, Matthew; Kennedy-Asser, Alan T.; Kunzmann, Lutz; Ladant, Jean-Baptiste; Lear, Caroline H.; Moraweck, Karolin; Pearson, Paul N.; Piga, Emanuela; Pound, Matthew J.; Salzmann, Ulrich; Scher, Howie D.; Sijp, Willem P.; Śliwińska, Kasia K.; Wilson, Paul A.; Zhang, Zhongshi (28 January 2021). "The Eocene–Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model–data comparisons". Climate of the Past. 17 (1): 269–315. Bibcode:2021CliPa..17..269H. doi:10.5194/cp-17-269-2021. ISSN 1814-9332. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
- ↑ Jovane, Luigi; Florindo, Fabio; Sprovieri, Mario; Pälike, Heiko (27 July 2006). "Astronomic calibration of the late Eocene/early Oligocene Massignano section (central Italy)". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 7 (7): 1–10. Bibcode:2006GGG.....7.7012J. doi:10.1029/2005GC001195. S2CID 127299427. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
- ↑ Moore, T. C.; Kamikuri, Shin-ichi; Erhardt, Andrea M.; Baldauf, Jack; Coxall, Helen K.; Westerhold, Thomas (1 April 2015). "Radiolarian stratigraphy near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary". Marine Micropaleontology. 116: 50–62. Bibcode:2015MarMP.116...50M. doi:10.1016/j.marmicro.2015.02.002. ISSN 0377-8398. Retrieved 25 December 2023 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- ↑ Weppe, Romain; Condamine, Fabien L.; Guinot, Guillaume; Maugoust, Jacob; Orliac, Maëva J. (26 December 2023). "Drivers of the artiodactyl turnover in insular western Europe at the Eocene–Oligocene Transition". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 120 (52). doi:10.1073/pnas.2309945120. ISSN 0027-8424. S2CID 266359889. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
- ↑ Zhang, R.; Kravchinsky, V.A.; Yue, L. (21 May 2012). "Link between Global Cooling and Mammalian Transformation across the Eocene–Oligocene Boundary in the Continental Interior of Asia". International Journal of Earth Sciences. 101 (8): 2193–2200. Bibcode:2012IJEaS.101.2193Z. doi:10.1007/s00531-012-0776-1. S2CID 55409146. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ "Russia's Popigai Meteor Crash Linked to Mass Extinction". June 16, 2014.
- ↑ Molina, Eustoquio; Gonzalvo, Concepción; Ortiz, Silvia; Cruz, Luis E. (2006-02-28). "Foraminiferal turnover across the Eocene–Oligocene transition at Fuente Caldera, southern Spain: No cause–effect relationship between meteorite impacts and extinctions". Marine Micropaleontology. 58 (4): 270–286. Bibcode:2006MarMP..58..270M. doi:10.1016/j.marmicro.2005.11.006.
- ↑ Shi, Juye; Jin, Zhijun; Liu, Quanyou; Fan, Tailiang; Gao, Zhiqian (1 October 2021). "Sunspot cycles recorded in Eocene lacustrine fine-grained sedimentary rocks in the Bohai Bay Basin, eastern China". Global and Planetary Change. 205: 103614. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2021.103614. ISSN 0921-8181. Retrieved 1 January 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
- ↑ also termed the MP 21 event.
- ↑ Called "dispersal-generated origination" in Hooker et al. 2004
- ↑ Stehlen, H.G. (1910). "Remarques sur les faunules de Mammifères des couches eocenes et oligocenes du Bassin de Paris". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 4 (9): 488–520.
- 1 2 Hooker, J.J.; Collinson, M.E.; Sille, N.P. (2004). "Eocene–Oligocene mammalian faunal turnover in the Hampshire Basin, UK: calibration to the global time scale and the major cooling event" (PDF). Journal of the Geological Society. 161 (2): 161–172. Bibcode:2004JGSoc.161..161H. doi:10.1144/0016-764903-091. S2CID 140576090.
- ↑ Köhler, M; Moyà-Solà, S (December 1999). "A finding of Oligocene primates on the European continent". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96 (25): 14664–7. Bibcode:1999PNAS...9614664K. doi:10.1073/pnas.96.25.14664. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 24493. PMID 10588762.
- ↑ Mennecart, Bastien; Aiglstorfer, Manuela; Li, Yikun; Li, Chunxiao; Wang, ShiQi (6 September 2021). "Ruminants reveal Eocene Asiatic palaeobiogeographical provinces as the origin of diachronous mammalian Oligocene dispersals into Europe". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 17710. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96221-x. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8421421. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ↑ A major cooling event preceded the Grande Coupure, based on pollen studies in the Paris Basin conducted by Chateauneuf (J.J. Chateauneuf, 1980. "Palynostratigraphie et paleoclimatologie de l'Éocene superieur et de l'Oligocene du Bassin de Paris (France)" in Mémoires du Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, 116 1980).
- ↑ Kelley, Patricia H.; Hansen, Thor A. (4 April 1996). "Recovery of the naticid gastropod predator–prey system from the Cretaceous–Tertiary and Eocene–Oligocene extinctions". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 102 (1): 373–386. Bibcode:1996GSLSP.102..373K. doi:10.1144/gsl.sp.1996.001.01.27. S2CID 129920064. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ↑ Lockwood, Rowan (1 January 2005). "Body size, extinction events, and the early Cenozoic record of veneroid bivalves: a new role for recoveries?". Paleobiology. 31 (4): 578–590. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031[0578:BSEEAT]2.0.CO;2. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ↑ Nebelsick, James H.; Rasser, Michael W.; Bassi, Davide (5 July 2005). "Facies dynamics in Eocene to Oligocene circumalpine carbonates". Facies. 51 (1–4): 197–217. Bibcode:2005Faci...51..197N. doi:10.1007/s10347-005-0069-2. S2CID 140576829. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ↑ Retallack, Gregory J.; Orr, William N.; Prothero, Donald Ross; Duncan, Robert A.; Kester, Paul R.; Ambers, Clifford P. (1 July 2004). "Eocene–Oligocene extinction and paleoclimatic change near Eugene, Oregon". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 116 (7–8): 817–839. Bibcode:2004GSAB..116..817R. doi:10.1130/B25281.1. Retrieved 16 April 2023.