Handbook for opening the vault: a helpful guide to using and interpreting paleontological data

Abstract

book reviews ISSN 1948‐6596 Handbook for opening the vault: a helpful guide to using and in‐ terpreting paleontological data Paleontology in Ecology and Conservation. Julien Louys (editor), 2012, Springer. 273 pp. $129/ £90 (hardback) ISBN: 9783642250378; http://www.springer.com In a past incarnation as a research student working on nature reserve selection and de‐ sign algorithms, I kept coming across provisos in the conservation planning literature such as ‘we need long‐term data on populations and ecosystems but because these are largely un‐ available we must rely on the limited, static species data that are available.’ I wondered why the palaeo‐record was not being used to fill this information gap. The first time I sug‐ gested this to a colleague, the response was predictable: what would data spanning ‘geologic’ time offer to modern conservation efforts? However, as is argued in this book, the fossil record is not limited to deep‐time (fossil data can provide insights into changes in extant populations and ecosystems over the past few centuries). Further, ecological data across all time‐scales are necessary for good management that supports the biodiver‐ sity and the ecosystem processes that make ecosystems resilient to environmental change (Mace et al. 2012). This book is aimed at researchers working in ecology and conservation who are interested in making use of the vast amount of informa‐ tion stored within the fossil record. The greatest strength of the book is that it teaches conservation planners how to access the ver‐ tebrate paleontological record, in order to extract the long‐term demographic data that they require. This includes data on animal demographics (mortality, age structure), predator–prey interactions, species richness and abundance, phylogenetic diversity, habi‐ tat usage and biotic recycling of nutrients. Conservation biologists will be interested in the review of evidence from the fossil record of the possible mechanisms by which animal and plant species may respond to future envi‐ ronmental change (extinction/extirpation, re‐ location and adaptation) and the context in which each response is likely to occur (Chapter 6). The authors address in detail the issues in‐ volved in using and interpreting the fossil re‐ cord to understand and manage modern eco‐ systems, such as differences in scale (temporal, spatial and taxonomic) between palaeoecology and neo‐ecology, as well as the taphonomic processes that affect the compo‐ sition of the fossil record (i.e. the death as‐ semblage). However, the unique contribution of this book is the focus on the positive as‐ pects of these differences, including guidance on dealing with potential problems. For ex‐ ample, the process of taphonomy—the crea‐ tion, movement, deposition and preservation of fossils—is described in terms of the novel information it offers (Chapter 5) to neo‐ ecological research. There is also an excellent review of the spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales of long‐term neo‐ecological studies, and guidance on ways that palaeoecological data can be integrated with these (Chapter 4) in order to extend the time scale of our obser‐ vations of biodiversity and ecological and evo‐ lutionary processes. The fossil record does not only provide depth in terms of temporal scales; the integration of multiple fossil records across space provides insights into the macro‐scale ecological and evolutionary processes that are likely to be affected by current and future global environ‐ mental change. This book provides a number of good examples of integrating records frontiers of biogeography 5.1, 2013 — © 2013 the authors; journal compilation © 2013 The International Biogeography Society