Paleobiogeography and faunal evolution: study of devonian brachiopods from Manitoba and paleobiogeography of North America

古生物地理学是研究过去生物分布的学科。这是一门充满活力的学科，它使我们对地球生物群随时间的演化和分布的理解有了广泛的增长。泥盆纪(约4.15亿-3.6亿年前)是一个古生物地理独特的时期，经历了广泛的生物地理和进化变化。然而，泥盆纪的古生物地理区划主要是通过完全依赖于对不同地区生物群的主观比较的定性分析来建立的。虽然定性结果提供了有关全球海洋生物分布格局的有用而重要的信息，但定性结论的主观性不容忽视。此外，定性分析所依据的数据需要更新。为了消除定性分析的潜在偏差，并用现代更新的数据更客观地评价古生物地理模式，将采用以下定量方法对泥盆纪古生物地理进行分析：1)相似性分析；2)概率分析；与马尼托巴省和其他地区腕足类的研究相结合，这些定量分析有望提供北美泥盆纪不同时期的古地理格架(作为短期目标)和世界范围内的古生物地理框架(作为长期目标)。了解泥盆纪古地理动态、动物群演化、环境变化与生物多样性变化之间的关系，在现代保护生物学中也具有潜在的意义。从早泥盆世到晚泥盆世的地方性/地方性变化与晚泥盆世生物多样性的巨大损失之间的联系以及背后的原因(S)应该给我们提供重要的线索，我们如何能够/应该保护今天的生物多样性，因为过去可能是未来的关键。这在当今人类面临越来越多的物种急剧丧失的情况下具有特别重要的意义。

Paleobiogeography is the study of the distributions of organisms in the past. It is a dynamic discipline that has led to extensive growth in our understanding of the evolution and distribution of the Earth's biota through time. The Devonian (~415-360 million years ago) was a paleobiogeographically unique period that encompassed a time of extensive biogeographic and evolutionary change. However, the Devonian paleobiogeographic divisions have been established largely through qualitative analyses that rely entirely on subjective comparisons of biota from different regions. While the qualitative results provide useful and important information about the worldwide distribution pattern of marine organisms, the subjectivity of the qualitative conclusions should not be overlooked.  Moreover, the data on which the qualitative analysis was based are in need of updating.  To eliminate the potential bias of qualitative analysis, and to evaluate the paleobiogeographic patterns more objectively with the modern updated data, the following quantitative approaches will be used to analyze Devonian paleobiogeography: 1) similarity analysis; 2) probabilistic analysis; and 3) parsimony analysis of endemicity.  With the study of brachiopods from Manitoba and other regions, these quantitative analyses are expected to provide paleobiogeographic frameworks of different intervals of the Devonian of North America (as the short-term objective) and worldwide (as the long term objective). Knowledge of the relationship between the paleobiogeographic dynamics, faunal evolution, environmental changes, and the change in biodiversity during Devonian has potential significance in modern conservation biology as well.  The connection between the change of provincialism/endemism from Early to Late Devonian and the great biodiversity loss in Late Devonian and the cause(s) underlying should give us important clues about how we can/should preserve present day biodiversity, as the past can be the key to the future. This is of particular significance when humans are encountering more and more dramatic losses of species nowadays.