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)的蜘蛛化石来重建系统和气候。利用详细的形态和统计分析，我们旨在记录不同琥珀类型中的蜘蛛纲动物群，并检验关于琥珀起源的生态系统的四个假说，包括四个方面：a)主要欧洲琥珀中的多样性和群落组成，b)不同琥珀类型之间的差异，c)从蜘蛛纲角度看从白垩纪到今天的生态系统变化和气候变化的影响，以及d)可以从琥珀动物群落推断的进化趋势和生物地理情景。从博物馆和私人收藏品中都发现了数千件来自欧洲的蜘蛛化石，但缺乏全面的分析来揭示这些蜘蛛化石在生态分析、生物地理和古气候重建以及研究古近纪和古近纪至今的演化转变方面的巨大潜力。拟议的项目弥补了这一差距，并将为了解生态系统和气候变化对欧洲节肢动物及其随时间变化的栖息地的影响提供必要的信息。这也将有助于描述欧洲三个最重要的琥珀矿藏，无论是在时间上还是空间上。

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.