Hierarchy, Individuality and Paleoecosystems

Abstract

Techniques and field observations that detect “spatial variation” and “temporal dynamics” in fossil deposits have become important research programs in paleosynecology. These studies attempt to delineate aggregates and sequences of fossils at varied scales that appear to result from processes encompassing larger areas and greater time spans than the processes familiar to neoecologists. Description and modeling of patterns and processes at these scales would be significant contributions to historical biology, but little attention has been given to the ontology of “natural” multispecies units discernable in fossil data sets at varied spatio-temporal scales of resolution. Do patterns at any of these nested levels of variation – patches within shell beds, shell beds within biofacies, and so on – represent the elusive original community of organisms?