loading page

Investigating the Relationship between Metabolic Rate and Extinction Probability for Arthropoda, Brachiopoda, Echinodermata, and Mollusca Phyla during the Cenozoic Era
  • +4
  • Kelly Tung,
  • Claire Hsu,
  • Eliana Montgomery,
  • Pedro Monarrez,
  • Michael Pimentel-Galvan,
  • Noel Heim,
  • Jonathan Payne
Kelly Tung
Stanford University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Claire Hsu
Stanford University
Author Profile
Eliana Montgomery
Stanford University
Author Profile
Pedro Monarrez
Stanford University
Author Profile
Michael Pimentel-Galvan
Stanford University
Author Profile
Noel Heim
Tufts University
Author Profile
Jonathan Payne
Stanford University
Author Profile

Abstract

From extracting nutrients to releasing energy, biological metabolism plays an integral role in determining evolutionary patterns of organisms through geologic time. A previous study depicted a positive relationship between metabolic rate and extinction probability for Mollusca within the Neogene period. We hypothesized that this relationship extends to other metazoan phyla during the Cenozoic Era. Using specific respiration rates measured from living organisms and body size data for fossil taxa, we estimated metabolic rates of animals across different phyla: Arthropoda, Brachiopoda, Echinodermata, and Mollusca. This analysis was performed at the class level by using the classes with the most data available to represent each phylum: Malacostraca, Ostracoda, Cirripedia, Rhynchonellata, Echinoidea, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, and Gastropoda. We then used logistic regression to estimate the relationship between the calculated metabolic rates and extinction probability during each epoch of the Cenozoic Era. Results indicate that while each individual phylum has a different extinction probability across each epoch, the regression coefficients for the combination of all studied phyla illustrate no relationship since there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis of no relationship between metabolic rate and extinction probability. Although this means that there is no significant correlation for most of the phyla, there are some exceptions where metabolism does affect extinction probability. During the Oligocene epoch, animals within the Mollusca phylum portray a clear negative correlation between metabolic rate and extinction probability. A negative relationship is also observed for Echinoderms during the Eocene epoch. Despite the crucial role that metabolism plays in species survival, our results indicate that more information is needed regarding specific environmental conditions in order to accurately predict the factors that ultimately affect species survival across marine animals within the Cenozoic Era.