The extinction event at the end of the <i>lundgreni</i> graptoloid biozone was one of the most severe extinction events to affect graptoloids during the Silurian. There are many hypotheses of what caused the extinction, but little work has been done relating the extinction to graptoloid ecology. In this study, the <i>lundgreni</i> extinction event has been investigated in the field and from existing literature. Fieldwork has been conducted in the UK and Australia. Data gathered from the literature has been used to compile a global database of species occurrences before and after the event. Both the field-based and the literature-based studies have been used to test hypotheses of the ecological causes of the <i>lundgreni</i> extinction. The hypotheses considered include that extinction is random, that there is a correlation between geographical distribution and extinction probability, and that the life history strategy of a species (whether the species is K – or r-selected) affects extinction probability.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:659712 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Muir, Lucy A. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/11864 |
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