“Paleontological research continues to underscore the importance of looking beyond diversity metrics during these* transitions, to more holistic understandings of ecosystems“ (*i.e., regional)
Carrie Tyler (University of Nevada, USA)
Rowan C. Martindale (University of Texas, USA)
This workshop addresses a fundamental challenge in paleobiology: defining true evolutionary and ecological “revolutions”.
By using the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR) as a case study, participants will collaborate to standardize definitions for ecological turnovers, identify how to decouple taxonomic diversity from functional and structural ecosystem changes, and evaluate how spatial and temporal scales distort the interpretation of the fossil record by using the MMR as case study. The MMR is not only a fundamental transformation of ocean ecosystems on long, evolutionary timescales (e.g., the diversification of calcareous plankton and bioerosion), but was also punctuated by several extinctions, turnovers, and oceanic anoxic events, which shaped the trajectory of marine life.
Many of the topics to be discussed in SEA-SURGE have been identified as the “Big Questions in Paleontology” by previous PaleoSynthesis collaborations.
● Defining and Quantifying “Revolutions”
● Decoupling Ecology from Diversity
● The Problem of Scale
● Mesozoic Marine Revolution Synthesis
Erin Saupe (University of Oxford, UK), Lydia Tackett (Missouri State University, USA), William Foster (University of Hamburg, Germany), Christian Klug (University of Zurich, Switzerland), Erin Maxwell (NHM Stuttgart, Germany), Peter Roopnarine (California Academy of Sciences, USA), Hans Larsson (McGill University, Canada)
scheduled for February