High Preservation Potential of Paleogeographic Range Size Distributions in Deep Time

Area of Science:

• Paleoecology
• Macroevolution
• Paleontology
• Extinction Science

Background:

• Reconstructing past geographic range sizes from fossil data is vital for understanding macroecological and macroevolutionary dynamics.
• Assessing the relationship between range size and extinction risk can help identify species vulnerable to current extinction events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of paleogeographic range size preservation in the fossil record over deep time.
• To compare the effectiveness of different methods for reconstructing species' range sizes.
• To determine the accuracy of detecting extinction selectivity patterns based on range size.

Main Methods:

• Conducted simulation-based extinction experiments.
• Varied extinction intensities and simulated scarcity of fossiliferous sediments.
• Introduced 'false extinctions' to test their impact on signal detection.

Main Results:

• Relative paleogeographic range size can be consistently reconstructed from fossil data.
• Extinction selectivity patterns related to range size are often preserved, even with scarce sedimentary rocks.
• Errors in species' temporal ranges ('false extinctions') can create misleading range-selectivity signals.

Conclusions:

• Paleontological data can reliably inform our understanding of extinction selectivity and species vulnerability.
• Identifying historical extinction patterns aids current efforts to predict and prevent species loss.
• Accurate temporal range data is crucial for reliable reconstruction of range size-extinction risk relationships.