A brief introduction to Dinosaur Herbivory.

 

Artist’s impression of the eastern flank of the Antarctic Peninsula during the Maastrichtian (Artist: James McKay, University of Leeds.)

Dinosaurs had diverse feeding mechanisms that strongly influenced their ecology and evolution. Herbivory probably evolved independently in derived silesaurids and various dinosaur groups. Although in the early Late Triassic, dinosaur herbivores were rare, by the early Middle Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous, they became the dominant vertebrate herbivores.

Herbivory  requires numerous physiological, anatomical, and behavioral adaptations,  including cranial modifications and specialization of the gastrointestinal tract. On the contrary, plants have developed certain features to dissuade herbivores, and evolved to compensate the effects of herbivory by extending growing periods, delaying leaf senescence, and improving nutrient and water availability to surviving leaves (Barret, 2014). Notwithstanding, some plants attract herbivores to enable seed dispersal or pollination, usually by producing fleshy fruits or nectar. The sum of these factors lead to diverse mutualistic interactions between plants and vertebrate herbivores.

Possible interactions between anatomical and physiological traits in herbivorous dinosaurs. From Barret, 2014

The evolution of sauropod herbivory was intimately associated with increased body size and quadrupedal locomotion. In Gondwanan faunas, titanosaurian sauropods were the principal herbivorous dinosaurs.

Several anatomical features enabled sauropods to ingest and digest massive quantities of vegetation (approximately up to 40 kg per day), much of it probably low in nutritional quality. Their long necks helped them to reach vegetation inaccessible to other herbivores, and their large bodies enabled the slower passage of plants through the gut with longer periods of gut fermentation, which allowed that enzymes chemically degrade very hard plants or large amounts of foliage, without employ other mechanical methods for breaking down food (although, is very common found sauropod skeletons with gastroliths).

Differences in body size, skull morphology, neck length, mobility, and dental features probably allowed coexisting sauropods to target different food sources and feed in distinct ways. Bonitasaura, a small sauropod from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina, may have been adapted for feeding on harder vegetation close to the ground. This is very different to the usual image of sauropods browsing high in the treetops and may have been a common feeding strategy among sauropods (Brusatte, 2012).

Triassic cycadophytes from Argentina: A) Pseudoctenis spatulata Du Toit; B) Taeniopteris Brongniart . From Cúneo et al, 2010

There were profound changes in floral composition and structure during the Mesozoic, including the rise of ferns, cycadophytes, and conifers during the Triassic and Jurassic, followed by the sharp decline of cycadophyte abundance and richness in the Early Cretaceous, and the origin and subsequent diversification of angiosperms. All these floral events have been linked to changes in dinosaur ecology, but currently the evidence for coevolutionary interactions between plants and dinosaurs is weak.

Reference:

Paul Barret, Paleobiology of Herbivorous Dinosaurs, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2014. 42:207–30, DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-042711-105515

Brusatte SL, Benton MJ, Ruta M, Lloyd GT. 2008. The first 50 Myr of dinosaur evolution: macroevolutionary pattern and morphological disparity. Biol. Lett. 4:733–36

Langer MC, Ezcurra MD, Bittencourt JS, Novas FE. 2010. The origin and early evolution of dinosaurs. Biol. Rev. 85:55–110

Martínez RN, Sereno PC, Alcober OA, Colombi CE, Renne PR, et al. 2011. A basal dinosaur from the dawn of the dinosaur era in southwestern Pangaea. Science 311:206–10

Tiffney BH. 1992. The role of vertebrate herbivory in the evolution of land plants. Palaeobotanist 41:87–97

Brief introduction to the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event.

Early Jurassic reconstruction (From Wikimedia Commons)

In Earth history there have been relatively brief intervals when a very significant expansion of low-oxygen regions occurred throughout the world’s oceans. In mid-1970s the discovery of black shales at many drill sites from the Atlantic, Indian, and the Pacific Ocean led to the recognition of widespread anoxic conditions in the global ocean spanning limited stratigraphic horizons. In 1976, Schlanger and Jenkyns termed these widespread depositional black shale intervals “Oceanic Anoxic Events” (Takashima et al, 2006). This was one of the greatest achievement of the DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Project).

The Toarcian OAE, Weissert OAE, OAE 1a, and OAE 2 are global-scale anoxic events associated with prominent positive excursions of δ13C and worldwide distribution of black shales. Two models have been proposed to explain it: the stagnant ocean model (STO model) and the expanded oxygen-minimum layer model (OMZ model). Deep-water warming may have also contributed to a decrease in oxygen solubility in the deep ocean and may have triggered the dissociation of large volumes of methane hydrate buried in sediments of the continental margins.

Time scale [Gradstein et al., 2005] illustrating the stratigraphic position and nomenclature of OAEs (From Jenkyns, 2010).

In the Jurassic and Cretaceous oceans, the calcareous nannoplankton was the most efficient rock-forming group, for that reason the characterization of calcareous nannofloras in OAE intervals are used to improve our understanding of the marine ecosystem and biological processes such as photosynthesis (biological pump) and biomineralisation (carbonate pump) that affect the organic and inorganic carbon cycle, as well as adsorption of atmospheric CO2 in the oceans (Erba, 2013). Calcareous nannoplankton represent a major component of oceanic phytoplankton, ranging in size  from 0.25 to 30 μm. The first records are from the Late Triassic. Their calcareous skeletons can be found in fine-grained pelagic sediments in high concentrations and the biomineralization of coccoliths is a globally significant rock-forming process.

The early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event  (T-OAE; ∼183 mya) in the Jurassic Period is considered as one of the most severe of the Mesozoic era. It’s associated with a major negative carbon isotope excursion, mass extinction, marine transgression and global warming (Huang, 2014, Ullmann et al., 2014). The T-OAE has been extensively studied in the past three decades although there is no general consensus about the causes or triggering mechanisms behind this event. During the peak of the perturbation corresponding to this event, calcareous nannofossils collapsed.

 

Schizosphaerella punctulata (adapted from Clémence, 2014)

Schizosphaerella is a nannofossil of uncertain biological affinities with a large globular test with two interlocking sub-hemispherical valves formed from a geometric arrangement of equidimensional crystallites with an average value of 10.5 μm in the major axis. During the Early Jurassic, suffered a major drop in abundance, and a reduction in size. The average values drastically decrease down to 8.3 μm around the interval corresponding to the T-OAE. This event is know as ‘Schizosphaerellid crisis’, ‘calcareous nannofossil crisis’ or ‘disappearance event’ (Erba 2004, Clémence, 2014). Four main hypotheses have been proposed to account for the nannoplankton biocalcification crisis through the early Toarcian: (1) a strong stratification of the water column and the development of an oxygen-minimum zone; (2) the discharge of low salinity arctic waters through the Laurasian seaway; (3) high values in atmospheric pCO2; and (4) a rapid warming (Clémence, 2014).

Results from the Paris Bassin as in other localities indicates that the increasing greenhouse conditions may have caused acidification in the oceans, hampering carbonate bio-mineralisation, and provoking a dramatical loss in the CO2 storage capacity of the oceans. The CO2 induced changes in seawater chemistry likely affected the calcification potential of both neritic and pelagic systems, as evidenced by drops of platform-derived carbonate accumulation and drastic reductions in size of the main carbonate producer Schizosphaerella.

The better understanding of the Mesozoic ocean-climate system and the formation of OAEs would help us to predict environmental and biotic changes in a future greenhouse world.

References:

Marie-Emilie Clémence: Pattern and timing of the Early Jurassic calcareous nannofossil crisis.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2014/doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.06.022.

Elisabetta Erba, Calcareous nannofossils and Mesozoic oceanic anoxic events, Marine Micropaleontology 52 (2004) 85 – 106

Bown, P.R., Lees, J.A., Young, J.R., (2004), Calcareous nannoplankton evolution and diversity through time. In: Thierstein, H.R., Young, J.R. (Eds.), Coccolithophores From Molecular Processes to Global Impact. Springer, Amsterdan, pp. 481–508.

Jenkyns, H. C. (2010), Geochemistry of oceanic anoxic events, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 11, Q03004, doi:10.1029/2009GC002788.

 

Ancient Greek theater and the past Mediterranean climate.

Theatre of Dionysos, Athens, Greece. From Wikimedia Commons

Ancient manuscripts, paintings and plays  provide valuable information to help modern scientists to reconstruct the climate of the past. The information recovered from these ancient sources are mainly focused on extreme events with a great impact in society like droughts or floods, and other less dramatic conditions. For instance, the analysis of the writings of scholars and historians in Iraq during the Islamic Golden Age between 816 and 1009 AD revealed an increase of cold events in the first half of the 10th century  immediately before the Medieval Warm Period. It’s also possible analyze  volcanic eruptions in the past by studying the colouration of the atmosphere in paintings that portrayed sunsets in the period 1500–1900 AD.

The analysis of the writings of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes during the Golden Age (5th and 4th centuries B.C) provides a valuable insight into the Mediterranean climate of the time.

A vase illustrating a Lenaia celebration. (Image from the Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy.)

Halcyon days occur in Greece, especially in Attica, and in southeastern Europe in the middle of winter between 15 January and 15 February, during which the halcyon birds were supposed to lay their eggs . The Halcyon days has its origins in an ancient myth. Halcyon was the daughter of Aeolus, the God of the Winds. She was married to Ceyx the King of Thessaly. After his brother died, Ceyx embarked on a voyage across the sea to consult the oracle of Apollo. He died in a storm and Halcyon threw herself into the waters to reunite with him. The gods amazed by her love and devotion, transformed Ceyx and Halcyon into kingfishers. Then, Zeus decreed that the winter sea stay calm for a period of 14 days so that the birds could keep their eggs safe in the winter.

Euripides in Medea wrote about the pleasant and harmonious climate: “Men celebrate in song how Aphrodite, filling her pail at the streams of the fair flowing Cephisus, blew down upon the land temperate and sweet breezes“.

The comedies of Aristophanes, often invoke the presence of the halcyon days. In Birds he mentioned the ‘skiadeion’, a kind of umbrella used solely to protect people from the sunlight rather than rain. Also, the drawn from the paintings on vessels showing that the clothes worn in Lenaia (an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition) were not designed for rainy weather.

 

 

 

Reference:

Christina Chronopoulou, A. Mavrakis, ‘Ancient Greek drama as an eyewitness of a specific meteorological phenomenon: indication of stability of the Halcyon days.’ Weather, DOI: 10.1002/wea.2145

Domínguez-Castro F, Vaquero JM, Marín M et al. 2012. How useful could Arabic documentary sources be for reconstructing past climate? Weather 67(3): 76–82. doi:10.1002/wea.83

Zerefos CS, Gerogiannis VT, Balis D, Zerefos SC, Kazantzidis A. 2007. Atmospheric effects of volc anic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 7: 4027–4042.