pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Estuarine fish and tetrapod evolution: insights from a Late Devonian (Famennian) Gondwanan estuarine lake and a southern African Holocene equivalent - PubMed

Review

. 2020 Aug;95(4):865-888.

doi: 10.1111/brv.12590. Epub 2020 Feb 14.

Affiliations

Review

Estuarine fish and tetrapod evolution: insights from a Late Devonian (Famennian) Gondwanan estuarine lake and a southern African Holocene equivalent

Robert W Gess et al. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

The Waterloo Farm lagerstätte in South Africa provides a uniquely well-preserved record of a Latest Devonian estuarine ecosystem. Ecological evidence from it is reviewed, contextualised, and compared with that available from the analogous Swartvlei estuarine lake, with a particular emphasis on their piscean inhabitants. Although the taxonomic affinities of the estuarine species are temporally very different, the overall patterns of utilisation prove to be remarkably congruent, with similar trophic structures. Significantly, both systems show evidence of widespread use of estuaries as fish nurseries by both resident and marine migrant taxa. Holocene estuaries are almost exclusively utilised by actinopterygians which are overwhelmingly dominated by oviparous species. Complex strategies are utilised by estuarine resident species to avoid exposure of eggs to environmental stresses that characterize these systems. By contrast, many of the groups utilising Devonian estuaries were likely live bearers, potentially allowing them to avoid the challenges faced by oviparous taxa. This may have contributed to dominance of these systems by non-actinoptergians prior to the End Devonian Mass Extinction. The association of early aquatic tetrapods at Waterloo Farm with a fish nursery environment is consistent with findings from North America, Belgium and Russia, and may be implied by the estuarine settings of a number of other Devonian tetrapods. Tetrapods apparently replace their sister group, the elpistostegids, in estuaries with both groups having been postulated to be adaptated to shallow water habitats where they could access small piscean prey. Correlation of tetrapods (and elpistostegids) with fish nursery areas in the Late Devonian lends strong support to this hypothesis, suggesting that adaptations permitting improved access to the abundant juvenile fish within the littoral zone of estuarine lakes and continental water bodies may have been pivotal in the evolution of tetrapods.

Keywords: Devonian tetrapods; Gondwana; Waterloo Farm; estuarine ecology; extinction; fish nurseries; vertebrate evolution.

© 2020 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

References

REFERENCES

    1. Ahlberg, P. E. (2018). Follow the footprints and mind the gaps: a new look at the origin of tetrapods. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 109, 115-137. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691018000695.
    1. Ahlberg, P. E. & Clack, J. A. (1998). Lower jaws, lower tetrapods - a review based on the Devonian genus Acanthostega. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 89, 11-46.
    1. Ahlberg, P. E. & Clack, J. A. (2006). A firm step from water to land. Nature 440, 747-749.
    1. Ahlberg, P. E. & Johanson, Z. (1997). Second tristichopterid (Sarcopterygii: Osteolepiformes) from the Upper Devonian of Canowindra, New South Wales, Australia, and phylogeny of the Tristichopteridae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 653-673.
    1. Ahlberg, P. E. & Johanson, Z. (1998). Osteolepiforms and the ancestry of tetrapods. Nature 395, 792-794.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources