Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity
Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity
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DOI：
10.1038/s41559-021-01608-8
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发表时间：
2021-12-30
影响因子：
16.8
通讯作者：
Chattopadhyay, Devapriya
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Raja, Nussaibah B.;Dunne, Emma M.;Chattopadhyay, Devapriya
化石记录中的取样偏差扭曲了对过去生物多样性的估计。然而，这些偏差不仅反映了化石记录的地质和空间方面，而且还反映了化石数据的历史和当前整理。我们展示了殖民主义的遗产和社会经济因素，如财富，教育和政治稳定，如何影响过去30年来化石数据的全球分布。我们发现，全球权力不平衡在古生物学领域持续存在，高收入或中上收入国家的研究人员垄断了古生物学知识生产，贡献了97%的化石数据。因此，一些国家或区域往往比另一些国家或区域更好地进行抽样，最终导致地球仪各地的空间抽样不均匀。这说明了如何努力减少采样偏差，以获得一个真正代表性的观点，过去的生物多样性并没有脱离多样化和非殖民化我们的学科的目标。分析全球分布，来源和作者的化石研究在过去30年，作者发现，研究人员在高收入或中上收入国家垄断了古生物学知识生产，古生物学数据库中97%的化石数据都是由这一数据库提供的，这导致低收入国家的研究人员被剥夺了权利，并导致地球仪的空间采样出现偏差。
Sampling biases in the fossil record distort estimates of past biodiversity. However, these biases not only reflect the geological and spatial aspects of the fossil record, but also the historical and current collation of fossil data. We demonstrate how the legacy of colonialism and socioeconomic factors, such as wealth, education and political stability, impact the global distribution of fossil data over the past 30 years. We find that a global power imbalance persists in palaeontology, with researchers in high- or upper-middle-income countries holding a monopoly over palaeontological knowledge production by contributing to 97% of fossil data. As a result, some countries or regions tend to be better sampled than others, ultimately leading to heterogeneous spatial sampling across the globe. This illustrates how efforts to mitigate sampling biases to obtain a truly representative view of past biodiversity are not disconnected from the aim of diversifying and decolonizing our discipline.Analysing the global distribution, source and authorship of fossil research over the past 30 years, the authors find that researchers in high- or upper-middle-income countries hold a monopoly over palaeontological knowledge production, contributing to 97% of fossil data in the Paleobiology Database, leading to disenfranchisement of researchers in lower-income countries and biased spatial sampling across the globe.