Such disciplines accept the importance of variation and are able to use the variation to obtain reliable, rigorous data. However, other disciplines have not yet recognized this concept as a potential tool. Paleobotany has been subject to a relatively arduous time in the modern scientific climate, although society's interest in anthropogenically induced global climate change instigated the current wave of interest in paleobotanical application to the question of past environmental change. Fossil plants provide a wealth of information regarding paleoenvironments including temporal and spatial relative change. However, a standard reference point should first be established for the material under consideration prior to drawing any paleoecological interpretation.
Fossil material needs to be referenced to appropriate modern material.
This referencing can be viewed from the large scale, overall ecological to the suborganismic level. The fossil record of Earth tells a very different story - the history of diversity is punctuated by extinctions and recoveries. Extrapolating observations of modern biodiversity to paleocommunities based on fossil evidence generally uses a nearest living equivalent as a reference point for each fossil plant identified. This extrapolation becomes more tenuous with increasing geological age until evolutionary processes, rather than organismal adaptational response to the external environment, become the determining factor. Patterns of diversity and variation at the community level can be attributed to both extrinsic and intrinsic factors.