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Diversity on the rebound

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The reduction in biodiversity after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event did not instantaneously create evolutionary opportunities for planktonic protists. Survivors instead re-diversified in pulses that followed morphological innovations.

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Fig. 1: Following a loss of morphological and taxonomic diversity at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) boundary, morphological complexity rebounded before taxonomic diversity.

Images adapted with permission from ref. 11, Smithsonian Institution Press; ref. 12,13,14, Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research/Allen Press; ref. 15, The Micropaleontology Project, Inc.; and ref. 16, Geological Society of America (permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Anne Weil

  2. Department of Environmental System Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    James W. Kirchner

  3. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    James W. Kirchner

Authors
  1. Anne Weil
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  2. James W. Kirchner
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Correspondence to Anne Weil or James W. Kirchner.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Weil, A., Kirchner, J.W. Diversity on the rebound. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 873–874 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0883-5

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