The marine biodiversity impact of the Late Miocene Mediterranean salinity crisis

• DOI: 10.1126/science.adp3703
• Publication Date: 2024-08-29T17:59:22Z
• Authors: Konstantina Agiadi; Niklas Hohmann; Elsa Gliozzi; Danae Thivaiou; Francesca R. Bose...; Marco Taviani; Giovanni Bianucci; Alberto Collareta; Laurent Londeix; Costanza Faranda; Francesca Bulian; Efterpi Koskeridou; Francesca Lozar; Alan Maria Mancini; Stefano Dominici; Pierre Moissette; Ildefonso Bajo Ca...; Enrico Borghi; George Iliopoulos; Assimina Antonarakou; George Kontakiotis; Evangelia Besiou; Stergios D. Zarko...; Mathias Harzhauser; Francisco Javier ...; Marta Coll; Iuliana Vasiliev; Angelo Camerlenghi; Daniel García-Cas...
• Keywords: marine biodiversity; Aquatic Organisms; Salinity; SDG 14 – Leben unter Wasser; Mediterranean; Messinian Salinity Crisis; Extinction, Biological; [SDU] Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Mediterranean Sea; Animals; 105112 Historical geology; Seawater; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences; Late Miocene; 106003 Biodiversity research; Fossils; Extinction; Biodiversity; Biological; 105112 Historische Geologie; Messinian Salinity Crisis, biodiversity, Mediterranean; The salt giant in the Mediterranean Sea; 106003 Biodiversitätsforschung; 105118 Paläontologie; Paleontology, biodiversity, Late Miocene, Mediterranean, Messinian Salinity crisis; 105118 Palaeontology; salinity crisis

Massive salt accumulations, or salt giants, have formed in highly restricted marine basins throughout geological history, but their impact on biodiversity has been only patchily studied. The salt giant in the Mediterranean Sea formed as a result of the restriction of its gateway to the Atlantic during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago. Here, we quantify the biodiversity changes associated with the MSC based on a compilation of the Mediterranean fossil record. We conclude that 86 endemic species of the 2006 pre-MSC marine species survived the crisis, and that the present eastward-decreasing richness gradient in the Mediterranean was established after the MSC.