title: Modelling the ecological-functional diversification of marine Metazoa on geological time scales.
abstract: The ecological traits and functional capabilities of marine animals have changed significantly since their origin in the late Precambrian. These changes can be analysed quantitatively using multi-dimensional parameter spaces in which the ecological lifestyles of species are represented by particular combinations of parameter values. Here, we present models that describe the filling of this multi-dimensional 'ecospace' by ecological lifestyles during metazoan diversification. These models reflect varying assumptions about the processes that drove ecological diversification; they contrast diffusive expansion with driven expansion and niche conservatism with niche partitioning. Some models highlight the importance of interactions among organisms (ecosystem engineering and predator-prey escalation) in promoting new lifestyles or eliminating existing ones. These models reflect processes that were not mutually exclusive; rigorous analyses will continue to reveal their applicability to episodes in metazoan history.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. andrew.bush@uconn.edu
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.forename: Philip M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Novack-Gottshall
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D008386:Marine Biology / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological