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What is Evolutionary History?02:35

What is Evolutionary History?

Scientists record evolutionary history by analyzing fossil, morphological, and genetic data. The fossil record documents the history of life on Earth and provides evidence for evolution. However, both fossil and living organisms offer evidence that outlines Earth’s evolutionary history.
Multi-species Conserved Sequences02:51

Multi-species Conserved Sequences

Next-generation sequencing technologies have created large genomic databases of a variety of animals and plants. Ever since the human genome project was completed, scientists studied the genome of primates, mammals, and other phylogenetically distant living beings. Such large-scale  studies have provided new insights into the evolutionary relationship between organisms.
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved DNA...
Ecological Niches02:02

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.
The Fossil Record02:56

The Fossil Record

The fossil record documents only a small fraction of all organisms that have ever inhabited Earth. Fossilization is a rare process, and most organisms never become fossils. Moreover, the fossil record only exhibits fossils that have been discovered. Nevertheless, sedimentary rock fossils of long-lived, abundant, hard-bodied organisms dominate the fossil record. These fossils offer valuable information, such as an organism's physical form, behavior, and age. Studying the fossil record helps...
Conservation of Declining Populations02:07

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
Conservation of Small Populations02:04

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 22, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
07:37

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

Mammalian niche conservation through deep time.

Larisa R G DeSantis1, Rachel A Beavins Tracy, Cassandra S Koontz

  • 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America. larisa.desantis@vanderbilt.edu

Plos One
|April 28, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Mammalian families show remarkable range conservation over millions of years, indicating resilience to climate change. This deep-time stability suggests higher taxonomic levels may possess inherent niche stability.

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Area of Science:

  • Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Climate Change Ecology
  • Biogeography

Background:

  • Climate change is currently driving shifts in species distributions, with organisms migrating poleward or to higher altitudes.
  • Predictive bioclimatic models often assume niche conservatism, meaning species' environmental requirements remain stable over time.
  • The long-term stability of ecological niches, particularly at higher taxonomic levels, remains an open question in evolutionary biology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether ecological niches, proxied by geographic range areas, are conserved at the mammalian family level across deep time.
  • To analyze range dynamics and their relationship with taxonomic diversity from the Eocene to the Pleistocene epochs.
  • To assess the resilience of mammalian families to past climate and environmental changes and inform predictions for current climate change impacts.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of fossil occurrence data for all mammalian families in the continental USA across Eocene to Pleistocene epochs.
  • Calculation and comparison of range area, percent range area occupied, range area rank, and range polygon centroids for each family over time.
  • Statistical analysis of the relationship between taxonomic diversity (species and genera) and range area changes.

Main Results:

  • Mammalian families exhibited significant increases in percent range area occupied from the Oligocene to the Miocene and Pliocene to Pleistocene.
  • Despite range expansions, families maintained statistically consistent rank orders of range size across epochs, indicating range conservation.
  • Greater taxonomic diversity correlated with larger occupied range areas, and changes in diversity were linked to changes in range area.
  • Geographic range centroids showed a consistent southeastern shift from the Eocene through the Pleistocene, potentially linked to Cenozoic environmental events.
  • Families with megafauna or those affected by terminal Pleistocene extinctions did not show significantly greater declines in range area rank compared to other families.

Conclusions:

  • Mammalian family-level ranges demonstrate significant conservation over deep time, supporting the concept of niche conservatism at higher taxonomic levels.
  • Life history traits may play a role in controlling niche conservation over evolutionary timescales.
  • Mammalian families exhibit resilience to past climate and environmental changes, and there is no evidence for distinct 'extinction-prone' families in the terminal Pleistocene.