Overview

Approximately 99% of all life that has ever existed is extinct. Fortunately, these long dead species have left traces of their lives and interactions with other species in the rock record that paleoecologists use to understand how species and ecosystems have changed over time. This record of past life allows us to study the dynamic nature of the Earth and gives context to current and future ecological challenges. This book brings together forty-four classic papers published between 1924 and 1999 that trace the origins and development of paleoecology. The articles cross taxonomic groups, habitat types, geographic areas, and time and have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of the evolution of life. Encompassing the full breadth of paleoecology, the book is divided into six parts: community and ecosystem dynamics, community reconstruction, diversity dynamics, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, species interaction, and taphonomy. Each paper is also introduced by a contemporary expert who gives context and explains its importance to ongoing paleoecological research. A comprehensive introduction to the field, Foundations of Paleoecology will be an essential reference for new students and established paleoecologists alike.

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9780226618173

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Reviews

The main thesis of this book is that paleoecology is central to the biological and geological sciences because of how it has modernized our understanding of the history of life on Earth and how modern biological systems came to be the way that they are. Broad in scope, including biotas from terrestrial and marine settings with vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant fossils, the compiled papers and their introductory commentaries support this thesis by providing evidence for the fundamental ways paleoecology has impacted these fields. An ambitious compendium of the critical founding scholarly publications of paleoecology. --Stephen Q. Dornbos, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A broad overview of classic (and more recent) papers that introduced key concepts to the field, Foundations of Paleoecology is a timely book. It will be useful for upper-level undergraduate or graduate seminars and to anyone new to the field who is hoping to gain a better understanding of the historic perspectives. --Brooke E. Crowley, University of Cincinnati

Author Information

S. Kathleen Lyons is assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and codirector of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Program. She is coeditor of Animal Body Size: Linking Pattern and Process across Space, Time, and Taxonomic Group, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Anna K. Behrensmeyer is curator of vertebrate paleontology in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Department of Paleobiology and codirector of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Program. She is coauthor of Fossils in the Making: Vertebrate Taphonomy and Paleoecology and Terrestrial Ecosystems through Time: Evolutionary Paleoecology of Terrestrial Plants and Animals, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Peter J. Wagner is associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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