TY  - JOUR
A1  - Neubauer, Thomas A.
A1  - Hauffe, Torsten
A1  - Silvestro, Daniele
A1  - Schauer, Jens
A1  - Kadolsky, Dietrich
A1  - Wesselingh, Frank P.
A1  - Harzhauser, Mathias
A1  - Wilke, Thomas
T1  - Current extinction rate in European freshwater gastropods greatly exceeds that of the late Cretaceous mass extinction
Y1  - 2021-05-21
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
JF  - Communications Earth & Environment
DO  - 10.1038/s43247-021-00167-x
PB  - Nature Publishing Group UK
N2  - The Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event 66 million years ago eradicated three quarters of marine and terrestrial species globally. However, previous studies based on vertebrates suggest that freshwater biota were much less affected. Here we assemble a time series of European freshwater gastropod species occurrences and inferred extinction rates covering the past 200 million years. We find that extinction rates increased by more than one order of magnitude during the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction, which resulted in the extinction of 92.5% of all species. The extinction phase lasted 5.4 million years and was followed by a recovery period of 6.9 million years. However, present extinction rates in European freshwater gastropods are three orders of magnitude higher than even these revised estimates for the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction. Our results indicate that, unless substantial conservation effort is directed to freshwater ecosystems, the present extinction crisis will have a severe impact to freshwater biota for millions of years to come.
N2  - The extinction rate of European freshwater gastropods during the late Cretaceous mass extinction has been previously underestimated but was still lower than the present rate, according to a comparison of current biodiversity with the fossil record.
UR  - http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/11037
ER  -