Earliest oceanic tetrapod ecosystem reveals rapid complexification of Triassic marine communities

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Roberts, Aubrey J.; Rucinski, Maciej; Kear, Benjamin P.; Hammer, Oyvind; Engelschion, Victoria S.; Scharling, Thomas Holm; Larsen, Rudi B.; Hurum, Jorn H.
• 署名单位: University of Oslo; Natural History Museum London; Swedish Museum of Natural History; University of Copenhagen
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adx7390
• 发表日期: 2025-11-13
• 页码: 722-727
• 关键词: SULFUR MOUNTAIN FORMATION; british-columbia; VIKINGHOGDA FORMATION; GRIPPIA LONGIROSTRIS; ICHTHYOSAUR; ICHTHYOPTERYGIA; Madagascar; phylogeny; SVALBARD; HISTORY

摘要

Tetrapods invaded oceanic environments after the cataclysmic end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), with temnospondyl amphibian to reptile-dominated assemblages succeeding across the Early Triassic [similar to 251.9 to 247.2 million years ago (Ma)]. However, conflicting fossil occurrences, divergence estimates, and stratigraphic time averaging make the tempo of this landmark evolutionary transition uncertain. In this work, we describe an oceanic tetrapod ecosystem from a condensed mid-Early Triassic (early Spathian, similar to 249 Ma) bone bed on the arctic island of Spitsbergen. Apex predator ichthyosaurians, small-bodied ichthyopterygians, durophagous ichthyosauriforms, semiaquatic archosauromorphs, euryhaline temnospondyls, coelacanths, lungfish, ray-finned fish, and sharks formed an unexpectedly complex trophic network. Comparative diversity analyses further show that heterogeneous marine vertebrate communities were well established by the late-earliest Triassic (Dienerian-Smithian, similar to 251 Ma) and integrated fully variegate tetrapod niches by similar to 3 million years after the EPME.