Todd A. Radenbaugh, PhD

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Paleontology in DeclineMaking Fossils Live Again

• Todd A. Radenbaugh, PhD
• Research Fellow
• Canadian Plains Research Center

Geological Society of America 16-19th,October,
2005 Salt Lake City, UT
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Evolution Under Siege
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NEW Monkey Trials
Pennsylvania school board's decision to teach
both intelligent design and evolution Apr 2004
New Mexico Schools Could Enter Battle Over
'Intelligent Design' (The Washington Post) By
Martha Raffaele, Page A07, October 09, 2005
http//www.theonion.com
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New Vision of the Future?

• Geologist wanted
• Posted January, 2005 from
• COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES- Dr. R Hawkins,
  Dean.
• Geology Ph.D. required. Teaching Introductory
  Geology, Paleontology, and History of Life.
• Contact
• Liberty University
• 1971 University Boulevard, Lynchburg, Virginia
  24502
• 434-582-2000

http//www.liberty.edu/Administration/HumanResourc
es/index.cfm?PID4353
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Making Paleontology Relevant
Paleontology courses need to be made more
relevant in geology and environmental science
departments curricula.

• The economy is dependent on fossil fuels.
• Anthropogenic forced climate change, habitat
  loss, and alteration of natural selection
  pressures has caused extinctions and extensive
  changes.

No longer concentrate on only morphology and
taxonomy.
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Paleontology in Virginia
Virginia Universities Bachelor Programs
Public (n15) Geology Programs 5 (33) Geology
Classes 12 (80) Paleo Classes 7 (47)
College of William and Mary (2) George Mason
University James Madison University Old Dominion
University (2) Radford University (2) University
of Mary Washington Virginia Tech (2)
Private (n22) Geology Programs 1 (5) Geology
Classes 12 (55) Paleo Classes 2
(9) Virginia Wesleyan College Washington and Lee
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Most Geology classes are Taught in Environmental
Studies Departments
37 Virginia Universities Bachelor Programs
Department Type
Geology Paleo classes 6 6
Environmental and Earth Sci. Paleo classes 16 3 (19)
Other (Physical sciences, Science survey, etc.) Paleo classes 3 0
None Paleo classes 12 0
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Retooling Paleontology
Make room for Paleo and macroevolution classes in
the environmental science curricula

• Link recent environmental change to its geologic
  history
• Use evidence from paleoecology and glean lessons
  for society and economy.

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Two examples
Two examples of how to use paleontological theory
relevant to todays environmental science
programs

• Ediacaran Fauna Reconstruction
• To show different ecological rules of assembly
• 2. Comparisons between Modern and Paleozoic
  Ecospace Use
• Extinctions - past and present

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Ediacaran Fauna Example

• 650 to 540 Million years ago
• frond-like forms, jellyfish-like imprints, and
  trace fossils.
• Perhaps evolved as nutrient supplies increased in
  shallow waters
• causing a radiation of trophic links in food webs

Photo Credit http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian
/critters.html
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Garden of Ediacara

• A time when todays rules of ecological assembly
  did not apply.
• No major predators
• Few mobile fauna
• Dominated by suspension feeding

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Ediacaran Fauna Clay reconstructions
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Ediacaran Fauna
Complete reconstructions of students
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Ecospace Example
Ecospace ecological resources used by species
based on adaptive morphologies (bauplan), space
utilization, and food sources
From Bambach (1983)
Megaguild Summation of the guilds occupied by a
species or group of species.
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Shallow Marine Megaguilds Through Time
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Tiering and Bulldozing
Trace Fossil
From Ausich and Bottjer 1982
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Paleozoic Bulldozing Changes in Ecological
Rules of Assembly
Bulldozers
Victims
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Ecospace Comparisons of a Modern and Late
Paleozoic Assemblage
Megaguild Key
EpS Epibenthic suspension SEnS Shallow
endobenthic suspension DEnS Deep endobenthic
suspension SENSD shallow endobenthic surface
deposit DEnSD Deep endobenthic surface
deposit P/H Predator or Herbivore
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Ecosystem Stability

• Stable ecosystems
• Persistence of similar niches and guilds within
  species assemblages, and the same lineages occupy
  these niches and guilds for extended periods of
  geological time (3-7 m.y.).
• Little selection pressure and speciation.

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Are We Changing the Landscape?

• What broad scale changes to biotic structure have
  occurred as a result of human activities similar
  to those in the fossil record?
• Can human activities act as a selection force
  with the capacity to change the functional roles
  and assembly rules at the ecosystem level?

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Estimation of Vegetation Changes Mixed Grassland
Ecoregion of Saskatchewan
Sources Pre-1880 - Archibold and Wilson (1980)
1990s - Statistics Canada, 1986, 1991 and 1996
Agricultural Census and the South Digital Land
Cover
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Ecospace for Birds
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Bird Assemblages Comparisons
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Guild and Habitat Trends





Significance plt0.01 plt0.05 by Mann-Whitney
test
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Extinctions

• Extinction rate 100 to 1,000 times more rapid
  than before human domination one species every
  hour to minute
• two-thirds of all species of plants, animals
  and organisms could be lost in the second half of
  the next century. Peter Raven, 2003

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Extinction Recovery
How long does it take to recover from a mass
extinction event?
The origination rate peaks about 20 million years
after the peak in extinction rates
From Sepkoski's 1998
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Conclusions

• Using paleoecology analogs, we can show that
  current trends are changing the landscape in
  terms of
• resource use
• regional species composition

• Evolutions influences on the biosphere,
  atmosphere, oceans, and solid earth making it a
  key topic in environmental science departments.
• Paleontology tell us how ecosystem structure has
  changed, and how it might change.
• Regional natural selection forces are
  diversifying and evolutionary changes as seen in
  the fossil record may be occurring.

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Future?
If current declining trends towards paleontology
continue, there will be negative long-term
consequences to science and society in
understanding our future.