Appearance Of New Species After Mass Extinction Obeys Evolutionary ‘Speed Limit’

How long will it take life on Earth to recover from the current climate and biodiversity crises? According to a new study of planktonic foraminifera fossils, it will take at least 10 million years

by GrrlScientist for Forbes | @GrrlScientist

A photomicrograph of 10 species of foraminifera, a group of plankton that the researchers traced through fossil records to discover how quickly they recovered after the asteroid strike that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs (66m years ago).
(Credit: John Maisano / The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences.)

How long does it take for life to recover after a mass extinction event? According to a new study, it takes at least ten million years before the diversity of living species achieves a similar level to that seen before the mass extinction event. This is according to findings by an international team of scientists who studied fossils from a group of planktic creatures known as foraminifera, or “forams”.

Forams are single-celled microscopic creatures that ooze their way around their tiny worlds. Paleobiologist Karen Wetmore, who was the invertebrate and microfossil collections manager at the University of California Museum of Paleontology for ten years, estimates there are approximately 4,000 foram species alive today (more here).

Forams are primarily marine creatures: most live on or in seafloor sediments, whilst others float around in the water column at various depths. A few species are found in freshwater or brackish environments, and a very few are non-aquatic soil-dwelling species (ref)…