Observations and perspectives on the variation of biodiversity

TL;DR

This paper links genome size evolution to the exponential growth of biodiversity over the Phanerozoic eon, explaining fluctuations and mass extinctions through genomic, climatic, and tectonic factors.

Contribution

It reconstructs the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve using genomic, climatic, and eustatic data, revealing the role of genome size expansion in biodiversity trends.

Findings

Biodiversity growth correlates with genome size evolution.

Mass extinctions align with tectonic events.

Reconstructed biodiversity curve matches fossil record data.

Abstract

Based on statistical analysis of the complete genome sequences, a remote relationship has been observed between the evolution of the genetic code and the three domain tree of life. The existence of such a remote relationship need to be explained. The unity of the living system throughout the history of life relies on the common features of life: the homochirality, the genetic code and the universal genome format. The universal genome format has been observed in the genomic codon distributions as a common feature of life at the sequence level. A main aim of this article is to reconstruct and to explain the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve. It has been observed that the exponential growth rate of the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve is about equal to the exponential growth rate of genome size evolution. Hence it is strongly indicated that the expansion of genomes causes the exponential trend of the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve, where the conservative property during the evolution of life is guaranteed by the universal genome format at the sequence level. In addition, a consensus curve based on the climatic and eustatic data is obtained to explain the fluctuations of the Phanerozoic biodiversity curve. Thus, the reconstructed biodiversity curve based on genomic, climatic and eustatic data agrees with Sepkoski's curve based on fossil data. The five mass extinctions can be discerned in this reconstructed biodiversity curve, which indicates a tectonic cause of the mass extinctions. And the declining origination rate and extinction rate throughout the Phanerozoic eon might be due to the growth trend in genome size evolution.