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Full-Text Articles in Paleontology
Beyond Functional Diversity: The Importance Of Trophic Position To Understanding Functional Processes In Community Evolution, Roxanne M. W. Banker, Ashley A. Dineen, Melanie G. Sorman, Carrie L. Tyler, Peter D. Roopnarine
Beyond Functional Diversity: The Importance Of Trophic Position To Understanding Functional Processes In Community Evolution, Roxanne M. W. Banker, Ashley A. Dineen, Melanie G. Sorman, Carrie L. Tyler, Peter D. Roopnarine
Geoscience Faculty Publications
Ecosystem structure—that is the species present, the functions they represent, and how those functions interact—is an important determinant of community stability. This in turn aects how ecosystems respond to natural and anthropogenic crises, and whether species or the ecological functions that they represent are able to persist. Here we use fossil data from museum collections, literature, and the Paleobiology Database to reconstruct trophic networks of Tethyan paleocommunities fromthe Anisian and Carnian (Triassic), Bathonian (Jurassic), and Aptian (Cretaceous) stages, and compare these to a previously reconstructed trophic network from a modern Jamaican reef community. We generated model food webs consistent with …