The marine biodiversity impact of the Late Miocene Mediterranean salinity crisis
- Author(s)
- Konstantina Agiadi, Niklas Hohmann, Elsa Gliozzi, Danae Thivaiou, Francesca Bosellini, Marco Taviani, Giovanni Bianucci, Alberto Collareta, Laurent Londeix, Costanza Faranda, Francesca Bulian, Efterpi Koskeridou, Francesca Lozar, Alan Maria Mancini, Stefano Dominici, Pierre Moissette, Ildefonso Bajo Campos, Enrico Borghi, George Iliopoulos, Assimina Antonarakou, George Kontakiotis, Evangelia Besiou, Stergios Zarkogiannis, Mathias Harzhauser, Francisco Javier Sierro, Marta Coll, Iuliana Vasiliev, Angelo Camerlenghi, Daniel Garcia-Castellanos
- Abstract
Massive salt accumulations, or salt giants, have formed in highly restricted marine basins throughout geological history, but their impact on biodiversity has been only patchily studied. The salt giant in the Mediterranean Sea formed as a result of the restriction of its gateway to the Atlantic during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago. Here, we quantify the biodiversity changes associated with the MSC based on a compilation of the Mediterranean fossil record. We conclude that 86 endemic species of the 2006 pre-MSC marine species survived the crisis, and that the present eastward-decreasing richness gradient in the Mediterranean was established after the MSC.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Geology
- External organisation(s)
- Università Degli Studi Roma Tre, Utrecht University, Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "Adriano Buzzati-Traverso", CNR, University of Pisa, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, Universidad de Salamanca, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Università degli Studi di Torino, Università Politecnica delle Marche, University of Florence, Museo de Alcalá de Guadaíra, Società Reggiana di Scienze Naturali, University of Patras, University of Oxford, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Universitat de Barcelona
- Journal
- Science
- Volume
- 385
- Pages
- 986-991
- No. of pages
- 6
- ISSN
- 0036-8075
- Publication date
- 08-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105112 Historical geology, 106003 Biodiversity research, 105118 Palaeontology
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 14 - Life Below Water
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/602b5cfa-23e8-4cae-870b-c8d6bc97279a