Tiering in suspension-feeding communities on soft substrata throughout the phanerozoic

Tiering of benthic marine suspension-feeding communities on soft substrata has varied throughout the Phanerozoic. Epifaunal tiering was most developed during the middle and late Paleozoic and the Triassic to Jurassic, with large-scale reductions in tiering occurring during the Permian-Triassic extinctions and after the Jurassic. Infaunal tiering reached its highest level of organization after the Paleozoic.