A new biannual newsletter , Canadian Palaeobiology, has been created by researchers at the Canadian Museum of Nature with an insatiable appetite for palaeo-dialogue.
Palaeontologists commonly identify five global extinction events in Earth's history.
These worldwide extinction events, and the subsequent recovery of flora and fauna, are all associated with major environmental change including continental displacement, sea level change, large-scale volcanic, tectonic and meteorite impact events, and in the last two million years, the effects of human activity. Although environmental events that triggered past extinctions and speciations may or may not themselves be repeated today, their effects on the habitat and biota can provide examples of how organisms today will react. By describing fossil animals and plants, their evolutionary adaptations and the environments in which they lived, our work can be used by modern biologists to predict how animals and plants in today's settings would react to similar environmental stimuli and to aid in predictions of change in modern and future biodiversity. The study of past biological diversity is critical to our understanding of the origin and evolution of living animals and plants. The Palaeobiological Studies project is within the Research Division of the Canadian Museum of Nature , and its investigations focus on the association between evolutionary change in fossil taxa and palaeoenvironmental change.