Introduction
The five great mass extinction events that have greatly influenced paths of evolution of life on Earth have attracted a wide range of speculation about original causes and ultimate effects. In this context, reefs are among the most widely studied of marine communities, partly because carbonate platforms are so enduring, but also because the fossil record of corals is relatively well known in terms of abundance and distribution. The marine tropics in general and reef taxa have been particularly targeted in mass extinctions. In each case, they have taken many millions of years to recover, intervals of time known as “reef gaps.” Many authors have speculated on the causes of mass extinctions and reef gaps, the outcome being a wide array of hypotheses involving climatic upheavals of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial origin. This article reviews these proposals and examines them in the light of the biology of extant corals and their Pleistocene history.
Mass extinctions,...
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Veron, J.E.N. (2011). Mass Extinctions, Anoxic Events and Ocean Acidification. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_37
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