Mammalian Community Organization and Paleoenvironmental Inference

拟议的研究将试图证明， 来自现代哺乳动物群落的信息， 在最近的化石记录中保存下来的， 了解哺乳动物群落组织的过去和现在。 一个社区组织的模式， 重要原因-气候条件， 晚第四纪群落应该比 仅基于现代社区和气候的模式。 的 包括晚第四纪哺乳动物群和气候 扩大了信息基础，也增加了社区， 与第三纪相比， 现存的是。 哺乳动物细胞大小分布的研究进展 社区以及这里提出的一项试点研究表明， 在类似的环境下， 尽管地理位置不同， 分类组成，但这些物种仍然是 量化。 定量分析 环境参数与物种大小分布 和进食习惯将有助于澄清和衡量 这段感情的基础 如果这种关系是牢固的， 可以作为定量方法的基础， 古老哺乳动物群落的古环境条件。 此外，本研究还将提出适应性假设， 在新生代记录中的尺寸变化的意义 改变哺乳动物群和环境。 这些特定目标 也可以被概括为允许分析环境 随着时间的推移而改变

The proposed research will attempt to demonstrate that information from modern mammalian communities and those preserved in the recent fossil record is pertinent to understanding mammalian community organization past and present. A model of community organization in relation to one of its important causes -- climatic conditions -- based on both modern and late Quaternary communities should be more powerful than a model based on modern communities and climates alone. The inclusion of late Quaternary mammalian faunas and climates broadens the information base and also adds communities and environments more similar to those of the Tertiary than any extant ones are. Previous studies of size distributions in mammalian communities as well as a pilot study presented here suggest that regularities are present in community structure under similar environmental conditions despite differences in location and taxonomic composition, but these regularities remain to be quantified. Quantification of the relationship between environmental parameters and the distribution of species' sizes and feeding habits will serve to clarify and measure the strength of this relationship. If this relationship is strong, then it can serve as the basis for a quantitative method for estimating paleoenvironmental conditions in older mammalian communities. In addition, this study will provide hypotheses of the adaptive significance of size-change during the Cenozoic record of changing mammalian faunas and environments.. These specific goal can also be generalized to allow analyses of environmental changes through time .