FLORA, FAUNA, AND PALEOECOLOGY OF THE Brazil Formation of Indiana

PALEONTOLOGY AND THE EXPLOITATION of natural resources, particularly coal and limestone, have an old and firmly established connection. This is especially important in deposits of Pennsylvanian age, where coal mining has helped to fill the collection drawers of museums and universities across North America and Europe. Unlike most natural exposures, those created by mining frequently reveal whole trees, forests of tree stumps, and enormous complete fronds of ferns and femlike plants, preserved where they fell in muds that covered dying peat-swamp forests. So much information is preserved in these kinds of exposures that they provide paleontologists with an extra measure of insight into the past. Not only can the species that lived at that time be identified, but also the structure and even some element of the dynamics of ancient ecosystems can be reconstructed. Paleoecology is a growing and increasingly important part of studies of terrestrial plants and animals. The time element afforded paleoecology permits the study of ecosystems over long periods of time. As a result, the response of these ecosystems to climatic change, changing sea levels, or the appearance of new kinds of organisms can be studied empirically. This has led to a series of test cases for theories and predictions of modern ecology that are based on extrapolations from short intervals of time. Such tests are extremely important. Today's society may have initiated a major global climate change, and paleontology may be able to provide insights into the likely outcome of biological events attendant on changing physical conditions. WILLIAM A. DiMICHELE Department of Paleobiology Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560