Vertebrate ecology and evolution in ‘Deep Time’

‘High up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to the rock to sharpen its beak.When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.’Hendrick Van Loon [1xThe Story of Mankind. Van Loon, H. See all References][1]It cannot be disputed that the time dimension is of fundamental importance in understanding the processes and patterns of ecology and evolution. In his book Basin and Range [2xBasin and Range. McPhee, J. See all References][2], the natural-history author John McPhee coined the term ‘Deep Time’ in reference to geological timescales. Whereas most modern biologists are interested in seconds, days, months and years, paleobiologists delve into timescales that are unfathomable to the human mind's experience or comprehension, ranging from many thousands to millions of years. Starting in this issue of TREE [3xFifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact. Burney, D.A. and Flannery, T.F. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2005; Abstract | Full Text | Full Text PDF | PubMed | Scopus (186)See all References][3], a new series of articles presents studies of vertebrate ecology and evolution in Deep Time. These articles address macroevolutionary and macroecological phenomena, such as adaptation, climatic influences, growth, reconstructing behavior and ecology, extinction, and biogeography, in vertebrate groups ranging from dinosaurs to mammals, including humans.Ever since the publication of Evolution: The Modern Synthesis [4xEvolution: The Modern Synthesis. Huxley, J. See all References][4], it has been realized that paleontology (also termed ‘paleobiology’) is a fundamental part of biology, particularly in relation to the lessons that can be learned from the evolutionary history of life over long periods of time. Simpson [5xThe Major Features of Evolution. Simpson, G.G. See all References][5] termed this ‘quantum evolution,’ which is the same as the modern concept of ‘macroevolution’ [6xMacroevolution Pattern and Process. Stanley, S.M. See all References][6] [i.e. the study of higher-level (species, genera, and above) evolution that occurs on geological timescales]. Although the fossil record provides abundant evidence of evolutionary patterns, evolutionary processes are more difficult to interpret. Nevertheless, recent studies have integrated observed morphological change in fossils with developmental biology [7xPatterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution. Carroll, R.L. See all References][7], such as the genomic mechanism for the acquisition of jaws and paired appendages in vertebrates 400 million years ago. Likewise, Gould's forward-thinking book Ontogeny and Phylogeny [8xOntogeny and Phylogeny. Gould, S.J. See all References][8] stimulated the investigation of how the timing of developmental events changes in ancestral–descendant sequences (i.e. ‘heterochrony’).Just as paleontology has contributed to evolutionary thinking, so too has it fundamentally contributed to ecology, particularly with regard to our knowledge of historical biogeography, global climate change, ancient guild structure and faunal evolution (‘chronofaunas’) through time. In the context of modern biology, macroecology [9xMacroecology. Brown, J.H. See all References][9] is the study of the relationships between organisms and their environment that result in broad-scale patterns of abundance, diversity and distribution. The fossil record has much to contribute to macroecology by providing the evolutionary context that results in these broad-scale patterns, as well as a unique understanding of the history of climate change. Recent biogeochemical studies of ancient ecosystems, and even broader geographical regions (e.g. the use of carbon isotopes to understand the evolution of C4 grasslands and grazing by late Cenozoic mammals), are contributing a great deal to our comprehension of the interaction between organisms and their environments in Deep Time.Ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes are ongoing through time. To only have knowledge of the present-day is similar to one landing of the Svithjod bird [1xThe Story of Mankind. Van Loon, H. See all References][1]. The Paleontology series beginning in this issue will integrate the lessons learned from Deep Time into a forward-thinking perspective about modern ecology and evolution.