Lecture

.
Extinction

• An extinction is a widespread and rapid decrease in

the biodiversity on Earth.

• The history of life is punctuated with extinctions.

• Geologic records show that most of the species that have ever lived are
now extinct.

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 Extinction are of two types:
Phyletic extinction

• occurs when all members of the species are extinct, but members of a
daughter species remain alive.

• The species during some geologic time evolve into another species.

• The ancestral species is extinct but the species lineage continues.

• It is sometimes referred to as pseudoextinction.

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Cont.

Terminal extinction

• The entire species population dies out without leaving any decedant
species.

• The species lineage termites and there is a net loss of species.

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Cont.

• Fossil record documents the fact that some intervals are characterized
by episodes of greatly increased rate of extinction (this may be million
of year)

• It should be noted that the major boundaries of geological periods

were placed at stratigraphic levels that showed rapid faunal change.

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Cont.

• The significant episodes of major extinction occurred during the

Cambrian, Late Ordovician, late Devonian, Late Triassic and Late
Cretaceous.

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Cont.

During Cambrian:

• The organisms most severely affected by extinction were the sponge

like archaeocyathid, several of families of inarticulata brachiopods
and many families of Trilobites.

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Cont.

Late Ordovician

• There was major extinction among: Trilobites , Nautiloid cephalopods

sessile echinoderms, graptolites, ostracodes, inarticulate and articulate
brachiopods and bryozoans.

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Cont.

• The Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction occurred 443 million years

ago and wiped out approximately 85% of all species.

• Scientists think it was caused by temperatures reducing and huge

glaciers forming, which caused sea levels to drop dramatically.

• This was followed by a period of rapid warming. Many small marine

creatures died out.

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Cont.

Late Devonian

• Among groups affected : Rugosa corals many families of articulate

brochiopods including all the atrypids, the ammonoids cephalopods
,trilobites many forms of conodonts and several of the early placoderm
and crossoterrygian fish

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Cont.

• The Devonian mass extinction event took place 374 million years ago
and killed about three-quarters of the world's species, most of which
were marine invertebrates that lived at the bottom of the sea.

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Cont.

• This was a period of many environmental changes, including global

warming and cooling, a rise and fall of sea levels and a reduction in
oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• We don't know exactly what triggered the extinction event

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Cont.

Late Permian

• The most severe of the faunal crises evident in fossil record occurred
at the end of Permian.

• It brought to extinction all the remaining tabulate and rugosa corals,

the remaining family of trilobites all the fusulinid foraminifera,
remaining eurypterid arthropods,

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Cont.

• two orders of bryozoans the blastoid echinoderm many families of

brachiopods almost all of the synapsid reptiles and few of the
amphibians and some reptiles

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Cont.

• The Permian mass extinction, which happened 250 million years ago,
was the largest and most devastating event of the five.

• Also known as the Great Dying, it eradicated more than 95% of all
species, including most of the vertebrates which had begun to evolve
by this time.

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Cont.

• Some scientists think Earth was hit by a large asteroid which filled the
air with dust particles that blocked out the Sun and caused acid rain.

• Others think there was a large volcanic explosion which increased

carbon dioxide and made the oceans toxic.

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Cont.

Late Triassic

• This marked the extinction of almost half of the existing order or sub
order of reptiles all the labyrinthodont amphibian, a few brachiopods
and many families of ammonoid, cephalopods.

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Cont.

• The Triassic mass extinction event took place 200 million years ago,
eliminating about 80% of Earth's species, including many types of
dinosaurs.

• This was probably caused by huge geological activity that increased

carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures, as well as ocean
acidification.

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Cont.

Late Cretaceous

• This saw the demise of the dinosaurs , reptiles , the ammonoid

cephalopods , many genera of foraminifera, many echinoids and many
genera of calcareous phytoplankton.

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Cont.

• The Cretaceous mass extinction event occurred 65 million years ago,

killing 78% of all species, including the remaining non-avian
dinosaurs.

• This was most likely caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth in what is
now Mexico, potentially compounded by ongoing flood volcanism in
what is now India.

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Cont.

• The significant mammalian extinction occurred in south America at

the beginning of Pleistocene and in all of the western hemisphere
during the late Pleistocene.

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Cont.
Key Questions

What genetic, physiological or ecological factors make a species

susceptible to extinction?

What environmental changes are responsible for major biotic crises of

the past 600m years?

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Cont.

• Extinction occurs when organisms or species fail to adopt to an

environmental change.

• Why did organisms fail to adopt to the environmental change?

• Its is possible that the persistent environmental change occurred at the

rate beyond the rate of adoptive response of the species.

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Cont.

• Explanation of the persistent environmental change can be

extraterrestrial, physical and biological

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Cont.

Extraterrestrial

1. The possible changes are increased levels of cosmic and X-radiation

from the solar and stellar sources

2. Increased radiation during intervals of magnetic reversals.

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Cont.

3. The climate effects of increased radiation during a nearby supernova

4. The direct effects of the magnetic field during a reversal of the earth’s
polarity

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Cont.

Physical

• A spectrum of environmental changes associated with continental

movements may be cause of major extinction e.g the slow spreading of
the lithospheric plates which may result in reduced sea levels and a
corresponding more severe climate .

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Cont.

• Continental assembly will increase climate seasonality and this brings

the biotas competition with each other

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Cont.

• In summary, extinction according to plate tectonics is caused by a

whole complex of environmental factors including climate change,
reduction in habitats areas, competition and altered oceanic
circulation.

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Cont.

Biological

• Biological factors supposed to be responsible for extinction include,

competition , predation, food-web disruption.

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Cont.

• Bramlette (1965) suggested that phytoplankton extinction during the

Late Cretaceous may have caused the extinction of organisms that
depend on the phytoplankton for food.

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Cont.

Conclusion

• It is impossible that any single cause is responsible for the major

extinction of the past nor is it likely that any one specific
environmental change is responsible for all the extinction that
occurred during an episode of biologic crises.

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Cont.

• Extinctions are complex natural phenomena whose causes are

undoubtedly varied.

• They are one of the most distinctive and enigmatic features of the
fossil record.

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Habitats

Marine

• Pelagic (near surface water mass)

• Benthic (bottom dwelling organisms)

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Cont.

Non-marine

• Aquatic and terrestrial

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Cont.

• Sessile species live attached to a rock, organism substrate

• Motile species move about

• Benthic species live either on the surface or within the sediments

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Cont.

Planktonic species float in water

Nektic species that can swim

Heterotrophs and autotrophs

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Cont.

• Autotrophs are organisms that prepare their own food through the
process of photosynthesis,

• Heterotrophs are organisms that cannot prepare their own food and
depend upon autotrophs for nutrition

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Cont.
• Examples of heterotrophs
• Herbivores
• Carnivores
• Omnivores

Examples of autotrophs
• Plants
• Lichens
• Algea

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Plants

• Evidence from Precambrian rocks suggests that the first living cells
developed about 4,000million years age.

• At this time, the earth’s atmosphere contained no oxygen .

• Some of the earliest fossil remain are lime mounds secreted by blue-
green algea.

• These are called stromatorites and represent the first plants.

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Cont.

• The fossil record of plant during Precambrian is not extensive,

although the ancestors of the diverse flora of the subsequent lower
Palaeozoic era must have developed by then.

• The Procaryotic cells of the kingdom Monera are the oldest known
fossils

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Cont.

• Blue-green algal-like cells and possibly bacteria have been identified

in Precambrian cherts from Australia that are 3500myears old.

• These early primitive algea had a profound effect.

• Most important , they produced oxygen which accumulated in the

atmosphere.

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Cont.

• The oldest vascular plants (with vein) are found in the rocks from
Silurian period.

• Spores and other microscopic parts of these plants have been found in
Silurian strata in Wales.

• Large numbers of plants fossils were formed during Devonian

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Cont.

• During the Carboniferous period luxuriant forests with tall plants

reaching the height of 30m developed in many parts of the world

• The remains of these forests are preserved as coal.

• The coal forests spread widely over much of which is now in North
America, Europe and Asia.

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Cont.

• The seed fern glossopteris flourished during the Permian period .

• Fossils of this bushy plant are found in Antarctica, India, South Africa,
South America, suggesting that these continents were joined when the
plants lived thereby providing evidence to support the theory of
continental drift

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Cont.

• In Triassic the ginkgos and cycads emerged and continued to evolve

during Jurassic

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Cont.
Angiosperms
Flowering plants made their first appearance late in Mesozoic era,
adding colour to the earth’s vegetation.

Insects which had evolved early in the Paleozoic Era took advantage of
flowering plants as they could feed on both pollen and nectar.

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Cont.

• During Tertiary the world’s vegetation was very similar to that of

today and detailed reconstruction of the climate can be attempted by
studying fossils floras.

• This work is of great value in the study of Quaternary ice age.

• The fluctuations in climate associated with ice advances and retreat

can be based on the evidence of fossils .

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Cont.

• Plants are not commonly preserved as fossils.

• They decay rapidly on land.

• The most favourable condition conditions are when plants are deposited in
anaerobic conditions because decay is then severely limited.

• The common plants fossils are deposited in anaerobic conditions because

decay is then severely limited .

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Cont.

• The common plant fossil are delicate carbon films on the rock surface
bedding plane all the original material having been removed.

• Plant material may be silicified.

• Replacement of plant material by calcite and other minerals sometimes

occurs

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Cont.

Coal
Most of the usable coal was formed during Carboniferous period from
the accumulation of forest peat ( during 75m.years at the end of the
Paleozoic era)

At this time, there was a super continent called Gondwanaland upon

which warm temperate and sub-tropical coal forests flourished .

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Cont.

• High rainfall promoted rapid growth.

• Forests grew in deltas, near seas.

• Forests were frequently invaded by water and coal seams are thus
interbedded with marine and non-marine sedimentary rocks related to
sea level changes.

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Invertebrates

Phylum Porifera (sponges)

• Porifera are one of the most primitive groups of multi-cellar organisms

and consisted of layers of relatively soft tissues.

• Forms: A rounded the body with an irregular shape. The body can be
divided into Ascon, Sycon and Leucon.

• Drawing
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Cont.

• Porifera lived in shallow marine environments the body had pores

which used to digest unicellular organisms.

• During evolution, the main different occurred in the pores especially

for the Sycon and the Leucon.

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Cont.

• Preservation of Porifera is rare due to the fact their bodies were soft.

• In the sponge there are needle-like structures made of calcareous

(CaCO3) the or siliceous (SiO2) material that support the body.

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Phylum Archacocytha

• These organisms are extinct.

• They are known in rocks ranging from end Precambrian to late

Cambrian.

• They are slightly more developed than the Porifera from which they
differ by having septa.

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Cont.

• They are part of the organism that formed reefs

• Diagram of Archacocytha.

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Phylum Arthropoda

• Arthropods originated in series of evolutionary radiation of marine

invertebrates that took place near the beginning of Cambrian.

• During the Cambrian the trilobites constituted the most diverse group
of arthropods.

• In Devonian they became replaced by Crustaceans as the most diverse

group .

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Cont.

• With time the trilobites became extinct.

• By Carboniferous time only 3 trilobites families existed.

• Final extinction in Permian.

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Cont.

• The phylum is made up of 5 subphylum: Crustacea, Chelicerata,

Pycnogonida, an unknown phylum with class Merostomoidea, and
Marreellomorpha.

• phylum Trilobita consisting of 8 orders: Agnostida, Redlichiida,

Corynexochida, Ptychopariida, Proetida, Phacopita, Lichida and
Odontopleurida

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Cont.

• Trilobites and Eurptypterids are some of the extinct members of the

phylum that common in the early and middle Paleozpoic era

• Presently includes: Insects, Crab, Shrimp, Ostracode Etc

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 Characteristics of trilobites

• Bilateral symmetry

• Segmented body, divided into: Cephalon, Thorax and Pygidium and is

divided lengthwise into an axial and two pleural lobes

• The cuticle function as an exoskeleton to provide support and

protection for the soft body parts.

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Cont.

• The dorsal cuticle is heavily calcified favoring preservation or

fossilization of the organisms

• Trilobites were adopted for trunk-limb feeding on particular detritus

• Adult length varies from 0.1 to 70cm average 5cm

• Trilobites are recorded from lower Cambrian to upper Permian

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Cont.

• They had a rapid adaptive radiation which culminated in maximum

trilobites diversity during the Late Cambrian .

• Diversity declined and extinction came in late Permian

• The feature of the trilobites (cephalon) evolved rapidly and variations

in these features are therefore of much value in taxonomy

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Cont.

• Trilobites are among are among the useful guide fossils in lower
Paleozoic strata and traditionally have been the major basis for
zonation and correlation of Cambriam rocks.

• They are abundant in the Paleozoic strata and are easily recognizable

• The extinction of trilobites is one of the biologic event used to define

the boundary between Paleozoic and Mesozoic era

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Phylum Brachiopoda

• The phylum has two clases : Articulata and inarticulata

• Articulata consist of orders : orthida, Pentamerda strophomenida,

Spiriferida Rhynchonellida, Dictyonellida , Terebratulida and
Thecideidida.

• Inarticulata consist of orders : Obelellida, Kutorginida , Paternida

Lingulida and Acrotretida

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Cont.

• The organisms of this phylum span the entire Phanerozoic

• Fossils of the phylum appear in rocks of earliest Cambrian age and

descendent of these fossils are living today in warm and cool oceans
and seas of the world.

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Cont.

• The Brachiopods were most abundant during Paleozoic, they are

solitary marine animals.

• They secrete a shell consisting of two valves that endose most of the
animals the valves of the dorsal and ventral in position .

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Cont.
• They are not equal the ventral or pedicles valve of the brachiopod is larger
of the two and has an opening in the posterior through which the pedical
protruded.

• The valves have bilateral symmetry that cut each of the two valves into
two

• Brachiopods are good guide fossils for the Ordovician and Silurian
stratigraphy

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Class Bivalvia (Pelecypoda)

• Its time span is Cambrian to present

• The pelecypoda have their soft parts enclosed in two valves (left and
right valves).

• The contractions of the adductor muscles closes the two valves

• The valve are held together by the dorsal horny , noncellular ligament
composed of conchiolin and aragonitic fibres.
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Cont.

• Cambrian pelecypods are less than 5mm and most are less than 2mm
long.

• Species longer than 1 cm evolved in early Ordovician.

• By late Ordovician one species had reached 140mm.

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Cont.

• The largest pelecypod (250mm) occurred in Silurian of North

America and Permian of Malaysia (600mm)

• The bivalves have shells composed of two similar valves whose plane
of symmetry passes between the two valves .

• The valves are mirror images of each other.

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Cont.

• The shells are composed of CaCO3, usually in the form aragonite,

though some species have calcites.

• Dead shells of pelecypods often become disarticulated because of the

relaxation and decay of the adductor muscles.

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Class Cephalopoda

• Most cephalopods had an external shell.

• This shell whether straight or coiled has form a cone.

• The narrow end of the nonch is divide by septa into a series of

chambers or camerae and it is termed the phragmocone.

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Cont.

• Anterior to this is the undivided chamber at the wide end of the cone,
as the animal grows ,it moves forward into the wider chamber and
builds septa at the back of the body.

• Cephalopoda has 3 subclasses: Ammonoids, Belemnites and Nautloids

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Ammonoids

• Ammonoids are Cephalopod molluscs that appear in the fossil record

in rocks of Devonian age.

• They were most abundant during the upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic
and died out towards the end of Cretaceous.

• The external ammonoids shells is coiled planospirally and the central

ambilicus is depressed or inflated and bulbous.

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Cont.

• Ammonoid shells may be ornamented by a variety of ribs, tubercles

and spines.

• Ammonoids are known only from fossils .

• They are believed to have had a squid-like body with eight tentacles,
impressions of which have been found .

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Cont.

• Ammonoids had an ink sac as in the modern Coleoids (squids, octopd)

which presumably had a defensive function.

• They are good for correlation of strata

• Three main groups of ammonoids lived at different times:

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Cont.

• The Goniatites lived during Devonian and Carboniferous periods

• The Ceratites dominated in Permian and Triassic

• The ammonites lived in Jurassic and Cretaceous.

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Cont.

• Ammonoids are found as fossils in variety of rocks : sandstones, shale,

limestones

• This makes it possible to correlate rocks which were found in

different environments.

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Belemnites

• Belemnites are an extinct group of Cephalopods.

• They belong to the sub-class coleoids.

• Fossils of belemnites can be found in rocks of lower Carboniferous to

Tertiary Era, but most common in marine strata of Mesozoic age.

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Cont.

• Belemnites are made up of two separate which are found isolated from
each other.

• The soft body of the belemnites was found fitted around a thick, bullet
or cigar-shaped internal shell with sharply pointed ends.

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Cont.

• This fitted into the phargmacone.

• The belemnites were squid-like creatures with tentacles , eyes and ink
sac . They were capable of swimming freely.

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Vertebrates

The first fish

• The first vertebrate to occur as fossils date from Cambrian strata of

Wyoming, USA.

• The fragments of bones are about 500million years old.

• One of these fish is known as Agnatha .

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Cont.

• They were jawless fish developed during Ordovician, Silurian and

Devonian periods.

• They were in some like descendants of modern hagfish

• They had a simple hole for a mouth, and probably grubbed about in
the mud for food.

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Cont.

• Fish with jaws took over from Agntha during the Devonian periods
these belonged to the groups:
1. Chondrichthyes

2. The Acanthodian

3. Placoderms are jawed fish

4. Osteichthyes or bony fish appeared in Devonian and gave rise to many modern fish

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Amphibians

• Amphibians developed from fish during Devonian period.

• The earliest Tetrapod (four-legged creatures) is found in the Devonian

strata in Greenland.

• The amphibians flourished in the luxuriant swamps forests of the

Carboniferous period.

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Cont.

• They depended on water for reproduction and many of them were

equipped with sharp teeth possibly for catching fish.

• The Temnospondyl is from Carboniferous period and is the earliest

complete fossil of an amphibian

• Modern amphibians such as frogs newts and salamanders do not

appear in the fossils record until Triassic times.

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Reptiles

• The earliest reptiles are known fossil record in rock of middle

Carboniferous age.

• These creatures had developed a reproductive system which allowed

them to break free from the watery environment required by their
amphibian.

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Cont.

• This evolutionary breakthrough was the ammiote egg that protected

the developing embryo and did away with the need stage.

• Possibly the best known of the ancient reptiles is the Dinosaur (terrible

lizard).

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Cont.

• Bones of these varied and very successful creatures are found in rocks

of Jurassic and Cretaceous age in many parts of the world including

North America Central Asia , Australia, Africa and Europe.

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Mammals

• The earliest mammals were small shrew-like creatures and Jurassic

and Cretaceous periods these developed only slowly.

• They are rare as fossils because they lived on land and they are were
small.

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Cont.

• Great variety evolved in tertiary

• Indrocotherium was a giant creature reaching 5m at the shoulder

• Early horse and it relative took advantage of grassland.

• They preyed on by carnivores

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Geologic history of Man
Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: vertebrate
Class: mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: Sapiens

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Cont.

• Primates include Man, monkey, great apes.

• Most of the primates are tree-living.

• Climbing demands a flexible skeleton and the ability to gasp branches

with both hands and feet.

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Cont.
• The flat nails afford considerable protection to the ends of the fingers
and are very useful to man in picking up certain small objects

• The large well-developed brain is an outstanding primate characteristic

and this important structure reaches its highest development in Man.

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Cont.

• Primates are arboreal, when die they are rarely preserved or fossilized
because there are no sediments in the forests to cover them quickly.

• Primates today live in tropics.

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Manlike Apes

• The gibbons, Orang-utan, chimpanzee and gorilla are the four living
members of the anthropoid or Man-like ape group.

• No living member of the anthropoid apes is ancestor of man.

• Gibbon-like apes lived in middle Tertiary.

• Man’s anatomy is close to that of apes.

• Mans legs are longer in proportion to his arms than those of apes.

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Cont.

• Man’s hand with its five fingers and offset thumb,belong to primitive
type, while the feet have lost their grasping function and are becoming
adjusted to man bipedal gait.

• The toes have shortened and the big toes is no longer offset like the
thumb, while the heel has lengthened into prop.

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Cont.

• Man’s brain ranges from about 1200 to1500cc, 2 or 3 times larger than
that of apes e.g Gorilla may reach a maximum of 630cc

• Human fossil remains became more numerous after man begun to live
in caves and to bury their dead.

• Human remain incaves are found with remains of other animals (their
food) and chipped flints (tools)

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