252百万年前に発生したペルム紀末絶滅は海洋種の80%以上を絶滅させたが、多くの海洋生態系は頂点捕食者が生存する複雑な構造を維持した。世界7カ所の海洋地点を対象とした新たな研究は、深刻な損失にもかかわらず5つの生態系が少なくとも4つの栄養段階を保持していたことを明らかにした。これは、生態系の回復力が独自の種構成に依存することを示唆し、現代の気候脅威への示唆を提供する。
ペルム紀末絶滅は約252百万年前に発生し、記録上最も深刻な大量絶滅として知られる。現在シベリアにあたる地域での大規模火山噴火が引き金となり、地球温暖化、海洋の脱酸素化、その他の環境ストレスを引き起こし、海洋種の80%以上を絶滅させた。三葉虫やユーリプテリッド（海サソリ）を含むグループが完全に姿を消し、他のグループも大きな打撃を受けた。回復期には、恐竜や魚竜などの新たな系統が出現した。
A cache of 250-million-year-old fossils rediscovered in Australia has shown a diverse community of early ocean predators following Earth's worst mass extinction. These marine amphibians, including species from the trematosaurid group, indicate a rapid global spread in the early Mesozoic era. The findings challenge previous views that limited such creatures to a single species in the southern hemisphere.
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Researchers have unearthed a remarkable fossil site in southern China that preserves a 512-million-year-old marine ecosystem from the Cambrian period. The find, known as the Huayuan biota, offers insights into life after the Sinsk extinction event around 513.5 million years ago. It includes thousands of fossils, many previously unknown to science.
An international team of scientists has documented nearly 800 species, many previously unknown, living nearly 4,000 meters below the Pacific Ocean's surface. Their five-year study in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone also tested the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining, finding significant local reductions in animal numbers and diversity. The findings, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, provide crucial data for regulating future extraction of critical metals.
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More than 700 fossils from the Jiangchuan Biota in Yunnan Province, southwest China, dating 554-539 million years ago in the late Ediacaran, include early relatives of starfish, acorn worms, deuterostomes, and other bilaterians. Led by Dr. Gaorong Li of Yunnan University, the discovery—after nearly a decade of fieldwork—challenges the suddenness of the Cambrian explosion by showing diverse animal communities predated it. The results, published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.adu2291), feature exceptionally preserved carbonaceous films revealing fine details like digestive systems.