title: Phylogenetic Paleoecology: Tree-Thinking and Ecology in Deep Time.
abstract: The new and emerging field of phylogenetic paleoecology leverages the evolutionary relationships among species to explain temporal and spatial changes in species diversity, abundance, and distribution in deep time. This field is poised for rapid progress as knowledge of the evolutionary relationships among fossil species continues to expand. In particular, this approach will lend new insights to many of the longstanding questions in evolutionary biology, such as: the relationships among character change, ecology, and evolutionary rates; the processes that determine the evolutionary relationships among species within communities and along environmental gradients; and the phylogenetic signal underlying ecological selectivity in background and mass extinctions and in major evolutionary radiations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 98 Beechurst Avenue, Brooks Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA; Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA. Electronic address: james.lamsdell@mail.wvu.edu.
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lamsdell
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Curtis R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Congreve
authors.affiliation: Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA.
authors.forename: Melanie J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hopkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Krug
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Patzkowsky
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: deep time; macroecology; macroevolution; paleobiology; paleoecology; phylogenetics