Paleoecology and Paleo Environments

Abstract

Paleoecology derives from the application of ecological principles to paleontological material. Paleoecology courses are commonly taught to undergraduates in geology and typically contain subject matter other than paleoecology, such as taphonomy, which is necessary to understand paleoecology, or evolutionary theory, if it is not covered elsewhere in a geology curriculum. Contents of paleoecology courses are affected by advances in sedimentology, developments in other branches of paleontology, advances in ecology, progress in paleoecology itself, changes in the concept of paleoecology as a science, and availability of text and reference books. Paleoecology courses of the 1980s are likely to include a great deal of paleoenvironmental analysis, more study of taphonomy than in the past, reduced emphasis on functional morphology, increased emphasis on organism-sediment interactions, a traditional dose of population paleoecology, and, in community paleoecology, more emphasis on community evolution and the meani...