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Mammal Community Structure through the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

Danielle Fraser, S Kathleen Lyons

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    Paleocene-Eocene mammal communities remained stable during a warming event and species invasion, suggesting niches were not saturated. This ancient resilience offers insights into modern ecological responses to climate change and invasion.

    Keywords:
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    Area of Science:

    • Paleontology
    • Ecology
    • Climate Science

    Background:

    • Human activities drive species invasions and climate change, threatening global biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
    • Understanding the long-term ecological community response to environmental perturbations like warming and invasion is crucial but challenging due to limited study durations.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To assess the long-term robustness of mammalian communities to rapid global warming and species invasion using the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) fossil record.
    • To evaluate changes in phylogenetic and functional diversity of North American mammals during the PETM.

    Main Methods:

    • Compiled a database of 144 species body sizes and constructed a time-scaled composite phylogeny for North American mammals.
    • Calculated phylogenetic and functional diversity metrics for mammalian communities before, during, and after the PETM.
    • Analyzed body size dispersion and spatial taxonomic turnover across the PETM event.

    Main Results:

    • Mammalian community phylogenetic diversity remained stable despite an increase in regional species pool diversity during the PETM.
    • Body size dispersion and spatial taxonomic turnover showed little change across the PETM.
    • Invasion by new taxa did not significantly alter community structure, likely due to unsaturated ecological niches.

    Conclusions:

    • Paleocene-Eocene mammalian communities exhibited remarkable stability in phylogenetic and functional diversity despite significant climate warming and species invasion.
    • The findings suggest that ecological niche availability plays a critical role in community resilience to novel species.
    • Further research is needed to determine if modern communities retain similar long-term robustness given anthropogenic landscape modifications.