Palaeo refs

Question 1

3D classification cube

Answer 1

• Bambach et al, 2007

Question 2

Trophic Nucleus

Answer 2

The species that make up 80% of the community - Neyman 1967

Question 3

Competitive Exclusion

Answer 3

Gause’s Principle, that two species that coexist and require the same limited resource cannot survive (Hardin, 1960) - leads to tiering
Ausich and Bottjer (1982) suggest that tiering is used to vertically partition resources between species, reducing competition.

Question 4

Punctuated Equilibrium

Answer 4

A useful tool that compliments phyletic gradualism and a mechanism that has been accepted by the scientific community
recognition of stasis as a meaningful and predominant pattern within the history of species,
Gould and Eldredge 1993

Question 5

Burgess Shale

Answer 5

Morris, 1986 - slab investigation

Life habits are diverse, most have a log-normal distribution

Question 6

Marine biomass and diversity

Answer 6

Parallel trends in animal diversity and biomass in the Ordovician and Permian–Triassic suggest strong links between animal diversity and animal biomass in the marine realm through deep time
During the Ordovician radiation, increased biomass of skeletal benthic invertebrates can be most directly tied to increased consumption efficiency
PAYNE AND FINNEGAN 2006

Question 7

Any data analysis

Answer 7

Hammer & Harper, Palaeontological Data Analysis,

Question 8

Biomass over time

Answer 8

Bambach (1993)

The biomass of marine consumers increased during the Phanerozoic.
o The expenditure of energy by marine consumers has increased with time
o This suggests that the supply of food increased across the whole spectrum of marine habitats during the Phanerozoic.
o Increased productivity in the oceans through the Phanerozoic

Question 9

Ediacaran to Cambrian

Answer 9

Butterfield (2007)
The fossil record documents two macroevolutionary modes separated by the transitional Ediacaran Period.
o The pre‐Ediacaran biosphere was populated almost exclusively by microscopic organisms exhibiting low diversity, no biogeographical partitioning and profound morphological/evolutionary stasis.
o The post‐Ediacaran biosphere is characterized by large diverse organisms, bioprovinciality and conspicuously dynamic macroevolution.
Eumetazoans reinvented the rules of macroecology through their invention of multitrophic food webs, large body size, life‐history trade‐offs, ecological succession, biogeography, major increases in standing biomass, eukaryote‐dominated phytoplankton and the potential for mass extinction.