title: The challenges to inferring the regulators of biodiversity in deep time.
abstract: Attempts to infer the ecological drivers of macroevolution in deep time have long drawn inspiration from work on extant systems, but long-term evolutionary and geological changes complicate the simple extrapolation of such theory. Recent efforts to incorporate a more informed ecology into macroevolution have moved beyond the descriptive, seeking to isolate generating mechanisms and produce testable hypotheses of how groups of organisms usurp each other or coexist over vast timespans. This theme issue aims to exemplify this progress, providing a series of case studies of how novel modelling approaches are helping infer the regulators of biodiversity in deep time. In this Introduction, we explore the challenges of these new approaches. First, we discuss how our choices of taxonomic units have implications for the conclusions drawn. Second, we emphasize the need to embrace the interdependence of biotic and abiotic changes, because no living organism ignores its environment. Third, in the light of parts 1 and 2, we discuss the set of dynamic signatures that we might expect to observe in the fossil record. Finally, we ask whether these dynamics represent the most ecologically informative foci for research efforts aimed at inferring the regulators of biodiversity in deep time. The papers in this theme issue contribute in each of these areas.
authors.affiliation: Ocean and Earth Sciences, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Life Sciences Building 85, Highfield Campus, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK t.ezard@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Thomas H G
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8305-6605
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ezard
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 05508-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Tiago B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Quental
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4323-1824
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Benton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004777:Environment; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013995:Time
keywords: biotic response; environmental change; fossil record; macroecology; macroevolution