Some new developments in mammalian paleoecology and ecometrics research | Juha Saarinen

Some new developments in mammalian paleoecology and ecometrics research

Research on fossil mammal record continues to provide new understanding on the evolution of mammals, but also importantly about ecological adaptations of mammals and their interactions with environments in the past. Such understanding serves a a basis for reconstructing past climatic and environmental (for example plant community) conditions in terrestrial ecosystems based on the distribution of functional traits and dietary patterns in fossil communities of mammals. Furthermore, with some limitations, such methods could be extended beyond fossil mammal communities to extend their coverage further back in time. However, functional traits have evolved through time following different patterns on separate continents, and thus it is important to look into non-analogue trait-environment associations beyond the establishment of modern functional trait conditions in mammals and other organisms. This can be achieved by multi-proxy comparisons from the fossil record, for example by analysing associations between fossil plant and mammal assemblages.