A deep‐time dating tool for paleo‐applications utilizing obliquity and precession cycles: The role of dynamical ellipticity and tidal dissipation

Competition for shared resources represents a fundamental driver of biological diversity. However, the tempo and mode of phenotypic evolution in deep-time has been predominantly investigated using trait evolutionary models which assume that lineages evolve independently from each other. Consequently, the role of species interactions in driving macroevolutionary dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we quantify the prevalence for signatures of competition between related species in the evolution of ecomorphological traits across the bird radiation. We find that mechanistic trait models accounting for the effect of species interactions on phenotypic divergence provide the best fit for the data on at least one trait axis in 27 out of 59 clades ranging between 21 and 195 species. Where it occurs, the signature of competition generally coincides with positive species diversity-dependence, driven by the accumulation of lineages with similar ecologies, and we find scarce evidence for trait-dependent or negative diversity-dependent phenotypic evolution. Overall, our results suggest that the footprint of interspecific competition is often eroded in long-term patterns of phenotypic diversification, and that other selection pressures may predominantly shape ecomorphological diversity among extant species at macroevolutionary scales.

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A promising future for integrative biodiversity research: an increased role of scale-dependency and functional biology

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2015.0228 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 371 (1691) ◽

pp. 20150228 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

S. A. Price ◽

L. Schmitz

Keyword(s):

Spatial Scales ◽

Scale Up ◽

Scaling Effects ◽

Deep Time ◽

Biodiversity Crisis ◽

Biodiversity Research ◽

Ecological Mechanisms ◽

Functional Biology ◽

Biotic Environment

Studies into the complex interaction between an organism and changes to its biotic and abiotic environment are fundamental to understanding what regulates biodiversity. These investigations occur at many phylogenetic, temporal and spatial scales and within a variety of biological and geological disciplines but often in relative isolation. This issue focuses on what can be achieved when ecological mechanisms are integrated into analyses of deep-time biodiversity patterns through the union of fossil and extant data and methods. We expand upon this perspective to argue that, given its direct relevance to the current biodiversity crisis, greater integration is needed across biodiversity research. We focus on the need to understand scaling effects, how lower-level ecological and evolutionary processes scale up and vice versa, and the importance of incorporating functional biology. Placing function at the core of biodiversity research is fundamental, as it establishes how an organism interacts with its abiotic and biotic environment and it is functional diversity that ultimately determines important ecosystem processes. To achieve full integration, concerted and ongoing efforts are needed to build a united and interactive community of biodiversity researchers, with education and interdisciplinary training at its heart.

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Are global hotspots of endemic richness shaped by plate tectonics?

10.1101/131128 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Pellissier Loïc ◽

Christian Heine ◽

Camille Albouy

Keyword(s):

Plate Tectonics ◽

Large Fraction ◽

Spatial Models ◽

Future Research ◽

Deep Time ◽

Current Location ◽

Lithospheric Plates ◽

Taxonomic Groups

AbstractSingular regions of the globe harbour a disproportionally large fraction of extant biodiversity. Spatial biodiversity gradients are frequently associated to extant ecological conditions using statistical models, but more rarely to paleo-environmental conditions, especially beyond the Quaternary. On one hand the role of plate tectonics in shaping the extant diversity of lineages is supported by numerous phylogenetic and fossil evidences, and on the other hand the spatial variation of biodiversity across the globe is rarely associated to geodynamic variables. In this study, we propose that plate tectonics explain the current location of hotspots of endemic richness across the globe. As an illustration, we used paleogeographies in a model, which quantifies through time and for each cell the potential dispersal across disconnected habitat patches. Rare events of dispersal across dynamic straits of unsuitable habitats allows species colonisation and that a subsequent absence of gene flow could lead to in-situ speciation. We evaluated whether this process could pinpoint the locations of hotspots of endemic richness computed from the ranges of 181,603 species across 14 taxonomic groups. The significant congruence between the regions highlighted by the model and the endemic richness provides evidences of the contribution of plate tectonics in shaping global biodiversity gradients. Places with high tectonic complexity, predominantly located at the confluence of major lithospheric plates such as the Mediterranean basin, Central America, Madagascar and South East Asia likely provided favourable circumstances for allopatric speciation and the emergence of new species across straits. While our illustration supports the role of plate tectonics, accounting for deep time geological events in spatial models of extant biodiversity is not straightforward. Future research should develop quantitative spatial models of biodiversity including the dynamic of ancient habitats.

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Earth history events shaped the evolution of uneven biodiversity across tropical moist forests

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2026347118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (40) ◽

pp. e2026347118 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Oskar Hagen ◽

Alexander Skeels ◽

Renske E. Onstein ◽

Walter Jetz ◽

Loïc Pellissier

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Terrestrial Plants ◽

Spatially Explicit Model ◽

Deep Time ◽

Extinction Rates ◽

Speciation Rates ◽

Tectonic Reconstructions ◽

The Relationship ◽

Contemporary Climate

Far from a uniform band, the biodiversity found across Earth’s tropical moist forests varies widely between the high diversity of the Neotropics and Indomalaya and the relatively lower diversity of the Afrotropics. Explanations for this variation across different regions, the “pantropical diversity disparity” (PDD), remain contentious, due to difficulty teasing apart the effects of contemporary climate and paleoenvironmental history. Here, we assess the ubiquity of the PDD in over 150,000 species of terrestrial plants and vertebrates and investigate the relationship between the present-day climate and patterns of species richness. We then investigate the consequences of paleoenvironmental dynamics on the emergence of biodiversity gradients using a spatially explicit model of diversification coupled with paleoenvironmental and plate tectonic reconstructions. Contemporary climate is insufficient in explaining the PDD; instead, a simple model of diversification and temperature niche evolution coupled with paleoaridity constraints is successful in reproducing the variation in species richness and phylogenetic diversity seen repeatedly among plant and animal taxa, suggesting a prevalent role of paleoenvironmental dynamics in combination with niche conservatism. The model indicates that high biodiversity in Neotropical and Indomalayan moist forests is driven by complex macroevolutionary dynamics associated with mountain uplift. In contrast, lower diversity in Afrotropical forests is associated with lower speciation rates and higher extinction rates driven by sustained aridification over the Cenozoic. Our analyses provide a mechanistic understanding of the emergence of uneven diversity in tropical moist forests across 110 Ma of Earth’s history, highlighting the importance of deep-time paleoenvironmental legacies in determining biodiversity patterns.

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Post-apocalyptic humanism in Hesiod, Mary Shelley, and Olaf Stapledon

Classical Receptions Journal ◽

10.1093/crj/clz022 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 91-108

Author(s):

Mark Payne

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Life Form ◽

Mary Shelley ◽

Speculative Fiction ◽

Human Being ◽

Deep Time ◽

Last Man ◽

The Last Man ◽

Olaf Stapledon

Abstract This paper considers the role of anachronism in large scale narratives of speculative fiction. Mary Shelley's The Last Man and Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men signal in their titles an ambition to deal with humankind totally and all inclusively. Both authors look to Hesiod as a model for their projects: the Greek poet's account of successive creations and destructions of humankind at the hands of the gods offers a way of narrating human being as both a local cosmic occurrence that has been and one day will be no longer, and as a life form that has persisted with distinctive orientations and commitments through its various local incarnations. The question of anachronism is thus given maximum scope. Rather than a question about accuracy in the representation of local historical details, anachronism emerges as an interrogation of what we recognize and acknowledge as ourselves in the horizon of deep time.

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Explicitly modelled deep-time tidal dissipation and its implication for Lunar history

Earth and Planetary Science Letters ◽

10.1016/j.epsl.2016.12.038 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 461 ◽

pp. 46-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

J.A.M. Green ◽

M. Huber ◽

D. Waltham ◽

J. Buzan ◽

M. Wells

Keyword(s):

Tidal Dissipation ◽

Deep Time

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Tidal evolution of close-in extra-solar planets

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921308016591 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (S249) ◽

pp. 187-196

Author(s):

Brian Jackson ◽

Richard Greenberg ◽

Rory Barnes

Keyword(s):

Evolution Equations ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Physical Models ◽

Tidal Evolution ◽

Tidal Dissipation ◽

Thermal Budget ◽

Hot Jupiters ◽

The Past ◽

Tidal Heating

AbstractThe distribution of eccentricities e of extra-solar planets with semi-major axes a > 0.2 AU is very uniform, and values for e are generally large. For a < 0.2 AU, eccentricities are much smaller (most e < 0.2), a characteristic widely attributed to damping by tides after the planets formed and the protoplanetary gas disk dissipated. We have integrated the classical coupled tidal evolution equations for e and a backward in time over the estimated age of each planet, and confirmed that the distribution of initial e values of close-in planets matches that of the general population for reasonable tidal dissipation values Q, with the best fits for stellar and planetary Q being ∼ 105.5 and ∼ 106.5, respectively. The current small values of a were only reached gradually due to tides over the lifetimes of the planets, i.e., the earlier gas disk migration did not bring all planets to their current orbits. As the orbits tidally evolved, there was substantial tidal heating within the planets. The past tidal heating of each planet may have contributed significantly to the thermal budget that governed the planet's physical properties, including its radius, which in many cases may be measured by observing transit events. Here we also compute the plausible heating histories for a few planets with anomalously large measured radii, including HD 209458 b. We show that they may have undergone substantial tidal heating during the past billion years, perhaps enough to explain their large radii. Theoretical models of exoplanet interiors and the corresponding radii should include the role of large and time-variable tidal heating. Our results may have important implications for planet formation models, physical models of “hot Jupiters”, and the success of transit surveys.

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Tracing the Progression of Inhabitation through Interior Surface in Semarang Old Town

Interiority ◽

10.7454/in.v1i1.9 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 64-78

Author(s):

AA Ayu Suci Warakanyaka ◽

Yandi Andri Yatmo

Keyword(s):

Continuous Transformation ◽

Interior Space ◽

Deep Time ◽

Interior Surface ◽

The Past ◽

Interior Spaces ◽

Central Java

The capacity of an interior to adapt and transform through time has imprinted interior with the consequences from its past occupancies. This paper argues that the trace of the past is imprinted within the layers of interior surfaces. The interior surfaces become the medium to trace the inhabitation throughout the life of the building and its interior, from the lens of Anthropocene. In particular this paper attempts to speculate the progression of inhabitation through the interior surface of the buildings in Semarang Old Town, Central Java, Indonesia that are presented through the stories of the facade, the paint and the tiles, and reveal how these layers narrate the idea of the deep time in which the past inhabitation is embedded. These layers of interior surfaces suggest the role of time, continuous transformation, and the traces of inhabitation in affecting and producing the current interior spaces. The understanding of deep time as reflected in the layers of interior surfaces suggests the agency of human inhabitation and culture within the transformation of interior space and highlights the ability of interior space to manoeuvre in time.

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Enhancing a Tangible Tabletop with Embedded-Technology Objects for Experiencing Deep Time

10.5753/cbie.wie.2019.598 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Yusseli Lizeth Méndez Mendoza ◽

M. Cecília Baranauskas

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Tangible Interfaces ◽

Abstract Concepts ◽

Deep Time ◽

Embedded Technology ◽

Physical Objects ◽

Educational Exhibit ◽

Concrete Concepts

Abstract concepts are harder to understand because they do not provide a direct sensory reference as concrete concepts do. Tangible interfaces have been shown benefits to facilitate the learning of such concepts through the manipulation of physical objects. In this work, we investigate the use of TangiTime, an educational exhibit designed and constructed as a tangible tabletop enhanced with embedded-technology objects to explore the concept of deep time. In particular, we were interested in the role of embedded-technology objects to support engagement and learning. We describe the TangiTime design process and artifacts implementation. Also, we present the context in which the exhibit was put into usage and results. Our results indicate that interaction with embedded-technology objects creates new ways of experiencing tangible tabletops and more engagement with the theme of the exhibit.

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Reconstructing the ecology of a Jurassic pseudoplanktonic megaraft colony

10.1101/566844 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Aaron W. Hunter ◽

David Casenove ◽

Emily G. Mitchell ◽

Celia Mayers

Keyword(s):

Moisture Diffusion ◽

Oceanic Islands ◽

Diffusion Models ◽

Deep Time ◽

Cast Doubt ◽

Commercial Logging ◽

Mode Of Life ◽

First Time

AbstractPseudoplanktonic crinoid megaraft colonies are an enigma of the Jurassic. They are among the largest in-situ invertebrate accumulations ever to exist in the Phanerozoic fossil record. These megaraft colonies and are thought to have developed as floating filter-feeding communities due to an exceptionally rich relatively predator free oceanic niche, high in the water column enabling them to reach high densities on these log rafts. However, this pseudoplanktonic hypothesis has never actually been quantitatively tested and some researchers have cast doubt that this mode of life was even possible. The ecological structure of the crinoid colony is resolved using spatial point process techniques and its longevity using moisture diffusion models. Using spatial analysis we found that the crinoids would have trailed preferentially positioned at the back of migrating structures in the regions of least resistance, consistent with a floating, not benthic ecology. Additionally, we found using a series of moisture diffusion models at different log densities and sizes that ecosystem collapse did not take place solely due to colonies becoming overladen as previously assumed. We have found that these crinoid colonies studied could have existed for greater than 10 years, even up to 20 years exceeding the life expectancy of modern documented megaraft systems with implications for the role of modern raft communities in the biotic colonisation of oceanic islands and intercontinental dispersal of marine and terrestrial species.Significance statementTransoceanic rafting is the principle mechanism for the biotic colonisation of oceanic island ecosystems. However, no historic records exist of how long such biotic systems lasted. Here, we use a deep-time example from the Early Jurassic to test the viability of these pseudoplanktonic systems, resolving for the first time whether these systems were truly free floating planktonic and viable for long enough to allow its inhabitants to grow to maturity. Using spatial methods we show that these colonies have a comparable structure to modern marine pesudoplankton on maritime structures, whilst the application of methods normally used in commercial logging is used to demonstrate the viability of the system which was capable of lasting up to 20 years.

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