Increase in metazoan ecosystem engineering prior to the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary in the Nama Group, Namibia
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The disappearance of the soft-bodied Ediacara biota at the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary potentially represents the earliest mass extinction of complex life, although the precise driver(s) of this extinction remain unresolved. The 'biotic replacement' model proposes that an evolutionary radiation of metazoan ecosystem engineers in the latest Ediacaran profoundly altered marine palaeoenvironments, resulting in the extinction of Ediacara biota and setting the stage for the subsequent Cambrian Explosion. However, metazoan ecosystem engineering across the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition has yet to be quantified. Here, we test this key tenet of the biotic replacement model by characterizing the intensity of metazoan bioturbation and ecosystem engineering in trace fossil assemblages throughout the latest Ediacaran Nama Group in southern Namibia. The results illustrate a dramatic increase in both bioturbation and ecosystem engineering intensity in the latest Ediacaran, prior to the Cambrian boundary. Moreover, our analyses demonstrate that the highest-impact ecosystem engineering behaviours were present well before the onset of the Cambrian. These data provide the first support for a fundamental prediction of the biotic replacement model, and evidence for a direct link between the early evolution of ecosystem engineering and the extinction of the Ediacara biota.
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Increasing atmospheric oxygen concentration may have deepened the redoxcline, extending habitable water depths, promoted animal-sediment mixing, and allowed for the evolution of more metabolically costly ecologies such as carnivory, in turn driving a predator-prey "arms race" and hence diversification.
“Increasing atmospheric oxygen concentration may have deepened the redoxcline, so extending habitable water depths, promoted animal-sediment mixing [e.g., (52)], and allowed for the evolution of more metabolically costly ecologies such as carnivory, in turn driving a predator-prey “arms race” and hence diversification (53).”
From Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations (2024) · cites this paper as [52]
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Ediacaran diversity and paleoecology from central Iran
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Advent of three-dimensional sediment exploration reveals Ediacaran-Cambrian ecosystem transition
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How to engineer a habitable planet: the rise of marine ecosystem engineers through the Phanerozoic
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Initial cyclostratigraphy of the middle Nama Group (Schwarzrand Subgroup) in southern Namibia
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Possible dickinsoniomorphs from the latest Ediacaran Nama Group, southern Namibia
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Self-citationEcosystem engineering, regime shifts and the rise of animals
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Cribb, A. T., Kenchington, C. G., Koester, B., Gibson, B. M., Boag, T. H., Racicot, R. A., Mocke, H., Laflamme, M., & Darroch, S. A. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Geological Survey of Namibia (NA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Cribb, Alison T.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Royal Society Open Science
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2019-09-25
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 190548
- ISSN
- 2054-5703 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6774933
- OpenAlex
- W2976998112
- Cited by
- 74
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 9
- FWCI
- 5.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Royal Society Open Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (DEB 1331980, PLR 134175)
- Paleontological Society (Arthur James Boucot Award, Student Research Grant)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN 435402)
- National Geographic Society (9968-16)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- bioturbation, Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, Ediacara biota, Cambrian explosion, Nama Group, trace fossils
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