The timing and geographic distribution of glaciers in high-latitude southern Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age remain poorly constrained, ultimately precluding our ability to estimate ice volume and associated climate teleconnections and feedbacks during Earth's penultimate icehouse. Current aerial extents of glaciers, constrained by sedimentary flow directions, near exclusively infer paleo-glaciation to be highland-driven and may underestimate potential ice sources in continental regions from which ice sheets may have emanated. Here, we report new U-Pb ages and Hf isotope compositions of detrital zircons recovered from diamictites in two key mid- to high-latitude Gondwanan basins (Paraná, Brazil and Tepuel, Argentine Patagonia). The results indicate regional sediment sources for both basins during the early period of late Paleozoic glaciation evolving into more distal sources during the final deglaciation along southern and western Gondwana. Similar age sediment sourced from diamictites in the Congo Basin, that require an ice center in eastern Africa suggest the possibility of a large ice sheet in this area of Africa proximal to the Carboniferous-Permian boundary, which may have sourced sediments to the Paraná Basin. An inferred distal southern source of glacial sediment for the Tepuel Basin argues for the presence of an ice sheet(s) in the Ellsworth Block of Antarctica towards the end of the glaciation history in Patagonia. These findings indicate an evolution during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age from proximally to extrabasinally sourced sediment reflecting continental-scale glaciation and subsequent drainage from the Windhoek Highlands, Ellsworth Block and an east African source in west-central Gondwana. Coincidence with a long-term fall in atmospheric pCO2 during the Pennsylvanian to a minimum across the Carboniferous-Permian boundary and a subsequent rise in the early Permian suggests a primary CO2-driver for deglaciation in the Paraná Basin. Additional boundary conditions including availability of moisture and paleogeography likely further contributed to the timing of nucleation, growth and demise of these Gondwanan glaciers.
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Using GIS to examine biogeographic and macroevolutionary patterns in some late Paleozoic cephalopods from the North American Midcontinent Sea
Geographic range is an important macroevolutionary parameter frequently considered in paleontological studies as species’ distributions and range sizes are determined by a variety of biotic and abiotic factors well known to affect the differential birth and death of species. Thus, considering how distributions and range sizes fluctuate over time can provide important insight into evolutionary dynamics. This study uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and analyses of evolutionary rates to examine how in some species within the Cephalopoda, an important pelagic clade, geographic range size and rates of speciation and extinction changed throughout the Pennsylvanian and early Permian in the North American Midcontinent Sea. This period is particularly interesting for biogeographic and evolutionary studies because it is characterized by repetitive interglacial-glacial cycles, a global transition from an icehouse to a greenhouse climate during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, and decelerated macroevolutionary dynamics, i.e. low speciation and extinction rates. The analyses presented herein indicate that cephalopod species diversity was not completely static and actually fluctuated throughout the Pennsylvanian and early Permian, matching findings from other studies. However, contrary to some other studies, the mean geographic ranges of cephalopod species did not change significantly through time, despite numerous climate oscillations; further, geographic range size did not correlate with rates of speciation and extinction. These results suggest that pelagic organisms may have responded differently to late Paleozoic climate changes than benthic organisms, although additional consideration of this issue is needed. Finally, these results indicate that, at least in the case of cephalopods, macroevolution during the late Paleozoic was more dynamic than previously characterized, and patterns may have varied across different clades during this interval.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10101734
- Publisher / Repository:
- PeerJ
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PeerJ
- Volume:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2167-8359
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- Article No. e6910
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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