PHANEROZOIC EARTH SYSTEM EVOLUTION AND MARINE BIODIVERSITY

The Phanerozoic fossil record of marine invertebrate diversity covaries with the amount of preserved sedimentary rock. The extent to which this covariation reflects a geologically controlled sampling bias remains unknown. Here we show that Phanerozoic records of seawater chemistry and continental flooding contain information on the diversity of marine animals that is not captured by sedimentary rock quantity alone. Interrelationships among variables suggest long-term interactions between continental flooding, sulfur and carbon cycling, global climate, and macroevolution. Thus, mutual responses to Earth systems evolution, not sampling biases, explain much of the observed covariation between Phanerozoic patterns of sedimentation and biodiversity. Linkages between biodiversity and environmental records likely reflect complex biotic responses to ocean redox conditions, paleoclimate, and long-term sea level changes driven by plate tectonics.