A Conceptual Map of Conservation Paleobiology: Visualizing a Discipline

Abstract

Disciplinary boundaries frame the basic questions and central issues of research, providing the context for the evolution of prevailing theories or paradigm shifts. This chapter aims to outline the development and scope of conservation paleobiology using bibliometrics. Publication records relating to research on conservation paleobiology were downloaded from Web of Science to generate two datasets, one aimed at producing a more conservative representation of conservation paleobiology, and the other more expansive. Bibliographic maps were created to provide insight into the development and structure of the discipline for both characterizations of conservation paleobiology research (conservative versus expansive). Bibliographic maps indicated that individual researchers working on conservation paleobiology specialize in several fields. Regardless of how conservation paleobiology is defined, research involving both paleontology and conservation appears to be highly multidisciplinary, including at least three main research domains broadly categorized as: (1) environmental history and conservation archeobiology, (2) genetics and evolutionary biology, and (3) ecology. Furthermore, paleontological publications did not form a distinct cluster, but rather were integrated within conservation science. This supports the proposition that, in practice, conservation paleobiology is a field of study within conservation science, and not a sub-discipline within paleontology. Analyses also revealed emerging research fronts in several topics and confirmed the need for long-term data that pre-dates human activities.