Triassic and Cenozoic Palaeobiogeography: Two Case Studies in Quantitative Modelling Using Idl®
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Palaeontologia Electronica http://palaeo-electronica.org TRIASSIC AND CENOZOIC PALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHY: TWO CASE STUDIES IN QUANTITATIVE MODELLING USING IDL® Arnaud Brayard, Marie-Anne Héran, Loïc Costeur, and Gilles Escarguel ABSTRACT This work presents two examples of palaeobiogeographic reconstruction using the Interactive Data Language® (IDL). Although this meta-language is devoted to geo- scientists and offers an array of easily usable tools, few palaeontologists actually use it. Our purpose is to illustrate how the IDL can be used to generate clear and direct visu- alizations of simulation results and interpolation methods for personal Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The first example is a paleogeographic simulation of the biodiversity evolution of planktonic species (and especially ammonoids) in the Early Triassic. Principal results of this global scale simulation are that the formation of a marine latitudinal gradient of species richness depends on the shape and magnitude of the Sea Surface Tempera- ture (SST) gradient, and the geographic location of the group’s ancestor. Thus, the recovery pattern of Early Triassic ammonoids species richness can be simulated and explained by a general increasing trend in steepness of the SST gradient. The second example describes a custom-designed GIS for large European Neo- gene continental mammals. Species richness and ecomorphologic parameters are interpolated, monitored in several ways, and discussed. Comparisons with the present- day distribution of large European mammals are also drawn and allow us to recognize that a broad North/South aridity gradient already existed by the Late Miocene with more open environments in Southern Europe. Arnaud Brayard. Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich, Karl-Schmid Strasse 4, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland and UMR-5125 CNRS, Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 2 rue Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France [email protected] Marie-Anne Héran. UMR-5125 CNRS, Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère, Université Claude Ber- nard Lyon 1, 2 rue Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. [email protected] Loïc Costeur. UMR-5125 CNRS, Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 2 rue Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. [email protected] Gilles Escarguel. UMR-5125 CNRS, Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 2 rue Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. [email protected] Brayard, Arnaud, Héran, Marie-Anne, Costeur, Loïc , and Escarguel, Gilles, 2004. Triassic and Cenozoic Palaeobiogeography: Two Case Studies in Quantitative Modelling Using IDL®. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 7, Issue 2; Art. 6A:22p, 1MB; http://palaeo-electronica.org/paleo/2004_2/triassic/issue2_04.htm BRAYARD ET AL.: PALEOGEOGRAPHIC MODELING WITH IDL KEY WORDS: palaeobiogeography; numerical modelling; species richness; interpolations; Early Triassic; Neogene; interactive data language PE Article Number: 7.2.6A Copyright: Palaeontological Association December 2004 Submission: 5 May 2004 Acceptance: 2 November 2004 INTRODUCTION each other, giving IDL a major advantage in time required for application development compared The field naturalist vision is being increasingly with other, more popular languages like FORTRAN abandoned in palaeontology, favouring desktop or C. Yet IDL keeps its compatibility with standard study ahead of fieldwork and leading to virtual programming languages through specialized func- palaeoworlds. Even though the numerical dimen- tions. sion may alienate scientists and disconnect them IDL allows the user to create custom proce- from the actual parameters of their problems, the dures, functions, or applications using simple use of numerical simulations can allow the testing matrix representation without using explicit loop of hypotheses that depend on multiple variables structures to process matrix data, further reducing that putatively control the dynamic evolution of a development time. IDL also allows the creation of system (Cleland 2001). Moreover, quantitative graphic user interfaces. Results can be viewed visualization offers illustrations or animations that immediately after processing using many pre-pack- may convey ideas more effectively. This paper aged graphic tools. All IDL functions, additional investigates how powerful Interactive Data Lan- functions, and examples can be downloaded on guage® (IDL) tools can be used to interactively vis- the Research Systems Inc. homepage (http:// ualize, analyse, and discuss results from large palaeontological data sets. www.rsinc.com). An open-source clone (PyDL) of This work presents two examples of palaeo- IDL is also developed in Python for Linux. biogeographic reconstructions, one Triassic and In geosciences, this language has been used one Cenozoic, using the IDL programming environ- primarily for satellite image analysis and 2D/3D ment. We begin by examining the Triassic exam- object modelling in applications such as the spa- ple, a general 2D palaeobiogeographic model tiotemporal analysis of basin history. The use of based on the constrained spreading of random IDL in palaeontology is still rare and usually limited phylogenies (Brayard 2002). Simulations are car- to the reconstruction and analysis of fossil mor- ried out in the biogeographic, thermal, and ocean phology (Marschallinger 2001). In this work, IDL is current setting of the Early Triassic. Modelled and used as a tool for calculating and visualizing palae- present-day Pacific Ocean Sea Surface Tempera- obiogeographic maps. The palaeobiological impli- tures (SST) and Sea Surface Currents (SSC) are cations of this study will not be discussed in great applied to discuss the recovery and distribution of detail; rather we concentrate on the construction of planktonic species following the Permo-Triassic cri- the two models and the benefits of IDL. sis. In the second part, we focus on IDL’s Geo- graphic Information Systems (GIS) facilities that EXAMPLE 1: A 2-D EVOLUTIONARY/ can be used to plot mammal diversity and ecomor- DISPERSAL PALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC phologic data on Neogene palaeogeographic RECONSTRUCTION OF EARLY TRIASSIC maps. AMMONOIDS Both models are written with IDL 5.2 and run Overview of the Geological and on Windows 98 and XP, Unix/Linux, and MacOS Palaeogeographic Context systems. IDL represents a complete computing and programming system for interactive analysis Early Triassic palaeogeography is relatively and visualization of data sets (Marschallinger simple, largely because continents were joined 2001). IDL is a programming meta-language imple- together in a single block known as Pangea. Pan- mented in ENVI (Environment for Visualizing gea was surrounded by a wide ocean (Pan- Images®) by Research Systems Inc. This meta- thalassa) and partially bisected by the Tethys Sea language is especially dedicated to numerical anal- (Elmi and Babin 1996). The Triassic was followed ysis and 2D/3D image processing. Several pre- by the largest mass extinction ever at the Permo- packaged graphic modules are able to interact with Triassic boundary. During this crisis, more than 2 BRAYARD ET AL.: PALEOGEOGRAPHIC MODELING WITH IDL 90% of marine species disappeared (Raup and action or reaction loops. Depending on local condi- Sepkoski 1982). The reef fauna was severely tions, numerical objects (e.g., cells, sand particles) affected and during this period trilobites became can interact and self-organize, creating spatial and extinct (Erwin 1993, 1994). The Early Triassic temporal patterns (Wootton 2001). appears to have been marked by poorly diversified The program was designed in three parts (Fig- faunal communities, composed of mobile species ure 1). The main module built the Early Triassic and a high percentage of predators (Erwin 1998, palaeogeography from a digitized version of a pub- 2001). The Permo-Triassic crisis is considered to lished reconstruction (Smith et al. 1994, from 60° be the Phanerozoic’s most drastic reorganisation North and 60° South and from 180° West to 180° of ecosystems and animal diversity. East, Figure 2). The geographic space is repre- By the Late Permian latitudinal temperature sented as an X * Y matrix corresponding to the lon- gradients were steep, but, in the late Upper Per- gitudinal (X) and latitudinal (Y) subdivisions in mian and in the earliest Triassic (Griesbachian), which each grid-cell represents a quadrate of 360/ latitudinal temperature gradients were warmer and X° by 120/Y°. Land is coded as 1 and sea as 0. weaker from the pole to the equator. This change The system also handled the biogeographic distri- can be inferred from both the fossil record and cli- bution of n simulated species whose presence matic simulations (Hotinski et al. 2001, Kidder and (coded as number 1) or absence (coded as num- Worsley 2004). The evolution of the latitudinal tem- ber 0) are saved in a matrix with dimensions X * Y * perature gradient during the rest of the Early Trias- n, where n is the number of species. sic (Dienerian, Smithian, and Spathian) is still The second module applied a latitudinal gradi- poorly understood (Kidder and Worsley 2004). ent of SST to the X * Y * n biogeographic matrix, However, the recovery of marine and terrestrial which constrains geographic displacements, speci- organisms following the crisis was reached by the ation events, and local extinctions for each simu- Spathian/Anisian boundary (Erwin and Pan 1996), lated species