Role of Oceanic Anoxic Events in regulating the Jurassic–Early Cretaceous taxonomic diversity of Mediterranean brachiopods

Abstract

This research investigated the taxonomic diversity of brachiopods during the Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, with a special focus on the Mediterranean. The term Mesozoic Mediterranean brachiopod fauna (MMBF) is introduced here, and its taxonomic novelty is described in detail. Since its establishment in the earliest Jurassic until its disappearance by the late Hauterivian, the deep-water benthic community of the MMBF has been profoundly different from that of any other brachiopod fauna. Compared with the genus and species richness of the rest of the world, the MMBF had special importance in brachiopod history in terms of being an isolated faunal province and evolution center. An analysis of PBDB records via statistical methods revealed that brachiopods – both in the global pool and in the Mediterranean – responded sensitively to changes in the ocean–atmosphere system, and their taxonomic diversity patterns at the genus and species levels also showed significant synchroneity to Oceanic Anoxic Events. These deoxygenation intervals might have played a major role in deep-time brachiopod evolution as one of the most important regulatory forces.