Ecology and Evolution Retreat
نویسنده
چکیده
09:20 Christopher Noto and Ari Grossman Using functional morphology to compare dinosaur ecological diversity Studies of ecological diversity seek to quantify functional groups to understand community structure. Fossil communities represent a special challenge because direct measurement of the once living ecosystem is impossible, and we must rely on indirect methods to infer ecology. Fortunately, many morphological traits strongly correlate with behavior and ecology, thus providing a means to quantify ecological diversity in a fossil assemblage. Successful application of this method to fossil mammals suggests its applicability to communities that are more ancient. Here we apply this method to several Late Jurassic dinosaur assemblages to examine their community structure and compare environmental differences between assemblages. Proportions of different categories found in each assemblage suggest some success in recovery of the original community structure. Comparison of ecological diversity between assemblages, combined with paleoclimate data, demonstrates a relationship between community structure and climate regime that is independent of the taxonomic composition of the assemblage.
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