Marine Biodiversity from the Triassic

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2025) | Viewed by 2497

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
TRIASSICA-Institute for Triassic Fossil Lagerstaetten, Perledo, LC, Italy
Interests: vertebrate paleontology; stratigraphy; evolution; biodiversity; paleoecology; marine paleoenvironment; evolutionary biology; functional morphology; systematics; taxonomy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Triassic appears as one of the most interesting times for life evolution owing to the recovery after the P/Tr biological crisis. In the marine environment, the appearance of totally new groups aligns with important changes in the surving ones, setting the base for modern fauna. We can follow this recovery through a rich series of closely spaced Fossil Lagerstätten that are now known to mainly be from the Early and Middle Triassic. Anoxic bottom conditions were often recorded during this period of time, allowing for the preservation of pelagic, mostly nectonic, organisms such as fishes, marine reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods, while rich assemblages of benthonic ones are known from shallow water carbonatic platforms. Thus, the recovery can be recorded step by step through the increase in the biodiversity from similar paleoenvironment assemblages.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Tintori
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Triassic
  • Fossil Lagerstätten
  • biodiversity
  • faunal recovery
  • food chain
  • functional morphology

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

33 pages, 5213 KiB  
Article
The Revolution of Small Snails and the Early Modern Evolutionary Fauna
by Stefano Dominici
Diversity 2025, 17(2), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/d17020120 - 8 Feb 2025
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Abstract
The species richness of major clades and functional groups among gastropods, a key element of Modern Evolutionary Fauna (MEF), underlines the dominant role of carnivorous Caenogastropoda and Heterobranchia, including small ectoparasites and micrograzers, at modern tropical latitudes. Neogastropoda are active predators that radiated [...] Read more.
The species richness of major clades and functional groups among gastropods, a key element of Modern Evolutionary Fauna (MEF), underlines the dominant role of carnivorous Caenogastropoda and Heterobranchia, including small ectoparasites and micrograzers, at modern tropical latitudes. Neogastropoda are active predators that radiated in the Cretaceous, but their early Mesozoic MEF roots are poorly understood. The escalation hypothesis emphasises prey–predator interactions as gastropods’ macroevolutionary drivers during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution but overlooks the significance of highly diversified smaller forms. The tropical fossil record of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction (PTME) and the Triassic rise of MEF suggests that non-carnivorous species dominated gastropod fauna immediately before and after the PTME: Permian micrograzers mainly fed on sponges and waned during the rise of MEF, while ectoparasites and micrograzing carnivores diversified starting from the Ladinian period. Patterns of gastropod species richness, size, and form, the fossil record of reef builders and other benthic invertebrates, and an analysis of stem neogastropods jointly suggest a Middle Triassic revolution of small-sized gastropods, triggered by the emergence of scleractinian corals and the diversification of echinoderms. Habitat heterogeneity and new food sources offered niches for the early radiation of modern gastropod clades. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Biodiversity from the Triassic)
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16 pages, 15953 KiB  
Article
New Material of Thylacocephala from the Early Ladinian (Middle Triassic) of Northern Grigna (Lecco, Lombardy, Northern Italy)
by Cheng Ji and Andrea Tintori
Diversity 2024, 16(11), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16110677 - 4 Nov 2024
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Abstract
Here we report and describe a new assemblage of Thylacocephala (Crustacea) from the Early Ladinian Buchenstein Fm. (Middle Triassic) of Grigna, Northern Italy. The assemblage consists of at least four species from three different genera: Ankitokazocaris lariensis sp. n., Ankitokazocaris sp., Austriocaris sp., [...] Read more.
Here we report and describe a new assemblage of Thylacocephala (Crustacea) from the Early Ladinian Buchenstein Fm. (Middle Triassic) of Grigna, Northern Italy. The assemblage consists of at least four species from three different genera: Ankitokazocaris lariensis sp. n., Ankitokazocaris sp., Austriocaris sp., Stoppanicaris grignaensis gen. et sp. n. This thylacocephalan assemblage is rather diverse compared to the others of the Triassic. The largest size and ornamentation type of thylacocephalan species is compared among different periods of the Triassic and indicates that taxa with ridges on the carapace are generally smaller than those with smooth carapaces. This may be related to their different modes of life, such as inside or above the sediment with low oxygen levels. Large and smooth taxa were possibly more adapted to a life above sandy bottoms in shallow waters, under a somewhat high wave energy, while small, ornamented taxa are better suited for deeper environments with muddy bottoms, inside which they could move freely. The EDS analysis of Austriocaris sp. reveals that the cuticle mainly consists of apatite, which is in accordance with previous interpretations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Biodiversity from the Triassic)
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