Topographically complex regions on land and in the oceans feature hotspots of biodiversity
that reflect geological influences on ecological and evolutionary processes. Over geologic …

Today, biodiversity decreases from equatorial to polar regions. This is a fundamental pattern
governing the distribution of extant organisms, the understanding of which is critical to …

Far more species of organisms are found in the tropics than in temperate and polar regions,
but the evolutionary and ecological causes of this pattern remain controversial 1, 2. Tropical …

The subdiscipline of 'community phylogenetics' is rapidly growing and influencing thinking
regarding community assembly. In particular, phylogenetic dispersion of co‐occurring …

Habitat complexity is one of the most important factors structuring biotic assemblages, yet we
still lack basic understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Although it is one of the primary …

The fossil record is the primary source of information on how biodiversity has varied in deep
time, providing unique insight on the long-term dynamics of diversification and their drivers …

The role of oxygen as a driver for early animal evolution is widely debated. During the
Cambrian explosion, episodic radiations of major animal phyla occurred coincident with …

Geochemical proxies based on Fe abundance (Fe/Al) and Fe-speciation have been widely
applied to marine sediments in order to unravel paleo-depositional redox conditions though …

Colonization of novel habitats can result in marked phenotypic responses to the new
environment that include changes in body shape and opportunities for further morphological …

The Paleobiology Database now includes enough data on fossil collections to produce
useful time series of geographical and environmental variables in addition to a robust global …