Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern Neotropical rainforests
Mónica R. Carvalho, Carlos Jaramillo, Felipe de la Parra, Dayenari Caballero‐Rodríguez, Fabiany Herrera, Scott L. Wing, Benjamin L. Turner, Carlos D’Apolito, Millerlandy Romero-Báez, Paula Liliana Narváez, Camila Martínez, Mauricio Gutierrez, Conrad C. Labandeira, Germán Bayona, María Dolores Hernández Rueda, Manuel Páez-Reyes, Dairón Cárdenas, Álvaro Duque, James L. Crowley, Carlos Santos, Daniele Silvestro
Abstract
The end-Cretaceous event was catastrophic for terrestrial communities worldwide, yet its long-lasting effect on tropical forests remains largely unknown. We quantified plant extinction and ecological change in tropical forests resulting from the end-Cretaceous event using fossil pollen (>50,000 occurrences) and leaves (>6000 specimens) from localities in Colombia. Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) rainforests were characterized by an open canopy and diverse plant-insect interactions. Plant diversity declined by 45% at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and did not recover for ~6 million years. Paleocene forests resembled modern Neotropical rainforests, with a closed canopy and multistratal structure dominated by angiosperms. The end-Cretaceous event triggered a long interval of low plant diversity in the Neotropics and the evolutionary assembly of today's most diverse terrestrial ecosystem.