Early eukaryote diversity: a review and a reinterpretation
File(s)
Author(s)
Porter, Susannah M
Riedman, Leigh Anne
Woltz, Christina R
Gold, David A
Kellogg, James B
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The first compilations of Proterozoic eukaryote diversity, published in the 1980s showed a dramatic peak in the Tonian Period (1000–720 Ma), interpreted as the initial radiation of eukaryotes in the marine realm. Over the decades, new discoveries filled in the older part of the record and the peak diminished, but the idea of a Tonian radiation of eukaryotes has remained strong, and is now widely accepted as fact. We present a new diversity compilation based on 181 species and 713 species occurrences from 145 formations ranging in age from 1890 Ma to 720 Ma and find a significant increase in diversity in the Tonian. However, we also find that the number of eukaryotic species through time is highly correlated with the number of formations in our dataset (i.e. eukaryote-bearing formations) through time. This correlation is robust to interpretations of eukaryote affinity, bin size, and bin boundaries. We also find that within-assemblage diversity—a measure thought to circumvent sampling bias—is related to the number of eukaryote-bearing formations through time. Biomarkers show a similar pattern to body fossils, where the rise of eukaryotic biosignatures correlates with increased sampling. We find no evidence that the proportion of eukaryote-bearing versus all fossiliferous formations changed through the Proterozoic, as might be expected if the correlation reflected an increase in eukaryote diversity driving an increase in the number of eukaryote-bearing formations. Although the correlation could reflect a common cause such as changes in sea level driving both diversification and an increase in sedimentary rock volume, we favor the explanation that the pattern of early eukaryote diversity is driven by variations in paleontological sampling.
Date Issued
2025-02-01
Date Acceptance
2024-07-24
Citation
Paleobiology, 2025, 51 (1), pp.132-149
ISSN
0094-8373
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Start Page
132
End Page
149
Journal / Book Title
Paleobiology
Volume
51
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Paleontological Society. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
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Subjects
Biodiversity & Conservation
Biodiversity Conservation
CHUAR GROUP
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
FOSSIL RECORD
GRAND-CANYON
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
NEOPROTEROZOIC EUKARYOTE
ORGANIC-WALLED MICROFOSSILS
PALEOENVIRONMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
Paleontology
SCALE MICROFOSSILS
Science & Technology
SPECIES RICHNESS
VASE-SHAPED MICROFOSSILS
VISINGSO GROUP
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-03-31