Cenozoic ecosystem dynamics in Europe deduced from arachnids preserved in amber

我们的目标是利用保存在欧洲始新世/渐新世（波罗的海，比特菲尔德和罗夫诺）琥珀前生态系统和气候重建的蛛形纲动物化石。通过详细的形态学和统计学分析，我们的目的是记录不同类型琥珀中的蛛形纲动物区系，并检验有关琥珀起源于生态系统的四个假设，包括四个方面：a）主要欧洲琥珀的多样性和群落组成，B）不同琥珀类型之间的差异，c）从蛛形纲动物的角度来看，从白垩纪到今天，生态系统变化和气候变化的影响，和d）从琥珀动物群中可以推断出的演化趋势和地理情景。从博物馆和私人收藏中发现了数千种来自欧洲琥珀的蜘蛛化石。然而，缺乏全面的分析来揭示这些蜘蛛化石在生态特征分析、地理和古气候重建以及研究古近纪期间以及古近纪与今天之间的进化转变方面的巨大潜力。拟议的项目弥合了这一差距，并将提供必要的信息，了解生态系统和气候变化对欧洲节肢动物区系的影响，以及它们随着时间的推移所居住的栖息地。这也将有助于在时间和空间上对欧洲三个最重要的琥珀矿床进行定位。

We aim to use arachnid fossils preserved in EuropeanEocene/Oligocene (Baltic, Bitterfeld and Rovno) ambers forecosystem and climate reconstructions. Using detailed morphological and statistical analyses, we aim to document the arachnid faunas inthe different amber types and test four hypotheses concerning theecosystems the ambers originated in, comprising four aspects: a)diversity and community composition within the main Europeanambers, b) differences between the different amber types, c) effect ofecosystem shifts and climate variability from the Cretaceous untiltoday from an arachnid perspective, and d) evolutionary trends andbiogeographical scenarios that can be deduced from the amber faunacommunities. Several thousand arachnid fossils from Europeanambers are known from both museum and private collections.However, there is a lack of comprehensive analyses that unravel theenormous potential of these arachnid fossils for ecological traitanalyses, biogeographical and paleoclimatic reconstructions, andinvestigations of evolutionary shifts during the Paleogene andbetween the Paleogene and today. The proposed project bridges thisgap and will provide essential information for understanding theeffects of ecosystem and climate variability on European arthropodfaunas, and the habitats they inhabited over time. This will also helpto characterise the three most important European amber deposits,both chronologically and spatially.