![]() ![]() PNAS 112:4922-2929.)īIG QUESTIONS: How does the fossil record inform us about the on-going modern extinctions? Biology in the Anthropocene: challenge and insights from the young fossil records. The fossil record's future includes its ability to provide critical data and new time frames for conservation, management, and ecological theory." - Susan Kidwell (2015. We should in fact embrace the modern world as an unnatural experiment in progress, no matter how uncomfortable our eventual discoveries may prove to be, and commit to greater integration of modern and paleo approaches in both research and training. Improved environmental proxies, age-control, and confidence in paleobiological evidence mean that disparate data types should no longer impede the development of a rigorous "Biology in the Anthropocene" that squarely faces legacy effects, ongoing trends, and disequilibrial states as default conditions. Paleontological data, derived both from fully buried fossil assemblages and from death assemblages that are still accumulating alongside living populations, constitute a powerful source of insights into the dynamics of extant (and recently extinct) species, communities, and ecosystems over the interdecadal to millennial time frames at which environments undergo natural and human-driven change. However, paleobiological data for the recent past confront us with the true status of modern-day biota and with the very real potential that climate-driven changes will result in elevated extinctions rather than community disruptions alone, owing to the continued press of other human factors and damage already sustained. Natural may not be an achievable or desirable goal. "Given extensive paleontological evidence for biotic change, the conclusion must be that, absent such long-term perspectives, most biological benchmarks-for abundance, distribution, variability, drivers, and dynamics-and rate estimates that are embedded within the last 50-100 y are probably far from natural. ![]()
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