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The multiple scales of biodiversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Catherine Badgley
Catherine Badgley*
Affiliation:
Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. E-mail: cbadgley@umich.edu
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Extract

The claim that measures of global biodiversity dynamics are meaningless is based upon several methodological problems, including underrepresentation of tropical regions in “global” Phanerozoic data sets, inaccuracies in taxonomic data, non-equivalence of higher taxa among groups of organisms, and uneven sampling intensity across groups, environments, and time intervals. Some of these problems are inherent in the fossil record, whereas others lie in documentation and interpretation of the subject. But the subject of global biodiversity is perfectly legitimate, even if problems persist in evaluating its full history. Moreover, recognition of the methodological problems has resulted in notable improvements in the Phanerozoic diversity database (e.g., Adrain and Westrop 2000; Alroy et al. 2001).

Type
Matters of the Records
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Winter 2003 , pp. 11 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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