The fossil record of the sixth extinction |
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| Authors: | Roy E. Plotnick Felisa A. Smith S. Kathleen Lyons |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA;2. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA;3. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, [NHB, MRC 121], Washington, DC, USA |
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| Abstract: | Comparing the magnitude of the current biodiversity crisis with those in the fossil record is difficult without an understanding of differential preservation. Integrating data from palaeontological databases with information on IUCN status, ecology and life history characteristics of contemporary mammals, we demonstrate that only a small and biased fraction of threatened species (< 9%) have a fossil record, compared with 20% of non‐threatened species. We find strong taphonomic biases related to body size and geographic range. Modern species with a fossil record tend to be large and widespread and were described in the 19th century. The expected magnitude of the current extinction based only on species with a fossil record is about half of that of one based on all modern species; values for genera are similar. The record of ancient extinctions may be similarly biased, with many species having originated and gone extinct without leaving a tangible record. |
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| Keywords: | Body size extinction fossils mammals range taphonomy |
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