Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Paleobiology
A bottom-up mammoth population model predicts moderate densities and high vulnerability to hunting
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Paleobiology
During the last glacial, large grazers inhabited Eurasia’s mammoth steppe. This cold steppe was productive enough to sustain a diverse assemblage of large mammals, but it remains controversial which population densities it could support. In sufficient densities, large herbivores can act as ecosystem engineers: creating and maintaining grassland habitat by means of disturbance and accelerated [...]
On the Origin of Nightjars (Caprimulgidae): Perspectives from the Fossil Record
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology
Fossils represent the only direct evidence for the ancestral morphologies, antiquity, and historical geographic distributions of life on Earth. The fossil record of the avian clade Strisores (which includes nightjars, oilbirds, potoos, frogmouths, owlet-nightjars, treeswifts, swifts, and hummingbirds) has been richly documented by avian standards, with well-corroborated stem-group representatives [...]
Niche evolution and phylogenetic community paleoecology of Late Ordovician crinoids
Published: 2021-09-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Fossil crinoids are exceptionally suited to deep-time studies of community paleoecology and niche partitioning. By merging ecomorphological trait and phylogenetic data, this study summarizes niche occupation and community paleoecology of crinoids from the Bromide fauna of Oklahoma (Sandbian, Upper Ordovician). Further, patterns of community structure and niche evolution are evaluated over a ~5 [...]