ArticleRoyal Society open science2019
Increase in metazoan ecosystem engineering prior to the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in the Nama Group, Namibia.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Marine biodiversity was greater in the presence of ecosystem engineers throughout the Phanerozoic.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A smartphone analogy to explore the origin of animals.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
- Advent of three-dimensional sediment exploration reveals Ediacaran-Cambrian ecosystem transition.Science advances · 2025Article
- Smoothness analyses of trace fossils: expanding quantitative toolkits to unravel bilaterian movement ecology during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Exotic cuticular specializations in a Cambrian scalidophoran.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Low oxygen but dynamic marine redox conditions permitted the Cambrian Radiation.Science advances · 2025Article
- Co-occurrence structure of late Ediacaran communities and influence of emerging ecosystem engineers.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations.Science advances · 2024Article
- Morphology shapes community dynamics in early animal ecosystems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Causes and consequences of end-Ediacaran extinction: An update.Cambridge prisms. Extinction · 2023Review
- Environmental drivers of the first major animal extinction across the Ediacaran White Sea-Nama transition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Pentaradial eukaryote suggests expansion of suspension feeding in White Sea-aged Ediacaran communities.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The rise and early evolution of animals: where do we stand from a trace-fossil perspective?Interface focus · 2020Review
- Quantifying ecospace utilization and ecosystem engineering during the early Phanerozoic-The role of bioturbation and bioerosion.Science advances · 2020Article
- Regional nutrient decrease drove redox stabilisation and metazoan diversification in the late Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Complex marine bioturbation ecosystem engineering behaviors persisted in the wake of the end-Permian mass extinction.Scientific reports · 2020Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
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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