Sarda Sahney1,*, Michael J. Benton1 and Paul A. Ferry2
-Author Affiliations
1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
2Eikonworks, 805 3rd Street, Canmore, Alberta, Canada T1W 2J2
*Author for correspondence (s.sahney@bristol.ac.uk).
Abstract
Tetrapod biodiversity today is great; over the past 400 Myr since vertebrates moved onto land, global tetrapod diversity has risen exponentially, punctuated by losses during major extinctions. There are links between the total global diversity of tetrapods and the diversity of their ecological roles, yet no one fully understands the interplay of these two aspects of biodiversity and a numerical analysis of this relationship has not so far been undertaken. Here we show that the global taxonomic and ecological diversity of tetrapods are closely linked. Throughout geological time, patterns of global diversity of tetrapod families show 97 per cent correlation with ecological modes. Global taxonomic and ecological diversity of this group correlates closely with the dominant classes of tetrapods (amphibians in the Palaeozoic, reptiles in the Mesozoic, birds and mammals in the Cenozoic). These groups have driven ecological diversity by expansion and contraction of occupied ecospace, rather than by direct competition within existing ecospace and each group has used ecospace at a greater rate than their predecessors.
biodiversity diversity ecology expansion tetrapods vertebrates
Footnotes
Received December 9, 2009.
Accepted January 3, 2010.
© 2010 The Royal Society
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