{"id":1052,"date":"2021-11-05T00:13:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T00:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:05:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:05:57","slug":"fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Miqu\u00e9la Thornton<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a\u00a0biodiversity crisis. It has been referred to as the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovermagazine.com\/planet-earth\/earth-is-on-the-cusp-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction-heres-what-paleontologists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sixth Mass Extinction<\/a>, and scientists are examining similar events in the planet\u2019s geological past looking for clues in ancient ecosystems to help us solve present-day issues.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1377293\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1377293\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1377293\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Current events have produced dramatic changes in the distribution of species, altering a region\u2019s time-specific ecosystem known as a biota, says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/ees\/people\/faculty\/SimonDarroch.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simon Darroch<\/a>, assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences. Darroch hopes there will be evidence of previous biota changes in the fossil record, such as undisturbed rock sequences that can place notable events and species to appropriate time periods. Yet, the extent to which biogeographic patterns or the distribution of animals can be preserved in the fossil record is not well understood.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.vanderbilt.edu\/2021\/04\/19\/vanderbilt-scientists-use-fossil-records-to-understand-the-present-predict-future-ecosystems\/\" class=\"broken_link\">Learn More!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Miqu\u00e9la Thornton Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a\u00a0biodiversity crisis. It has been referred to as the\u00a0Sixth Mass Extinction, and scientists are examining similar events in the planet\u2019s geological past looking for clues in ancient ecosystems to help us solve present-day issues. Current events have produced dramatic changes in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2421,"featured_media":1055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems - Evolution@91勛圖厙\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Miqu\u00e9la Thornton Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a\u00a0biodiversity crisis. It has been referred to as the\u00a0Sixth Mass Extinction, and scientists are examining similar events in the planet\u2019s geological past looking for clues in ancient ecosystems to help us solve present-day issues. Current events have produced dramatic changes in...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Evolution@91勛圖厙\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-05T00:13:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-05T21:05:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2021\/11\/20023639\/owl.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"685\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"357\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"flickaj\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/\",\"name\":\"Evolution@91勛圖厙\",\"description\":\"Evolutionary Studies Initiative at 91勛圖厙\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2021\/11\/20023639\/owl.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2021\/11\/20023639\/owl.jpeg\",\"width\":685,\"height\":357,\"caption\":\"Barn owl flying in the air\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/\",\"name\":\"Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems - Evolution@91勛圖厙\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-05T00:13:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-05T21:05:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/4607d1feb9ff7141c6d0553b57135f04\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/4607d1feb9ff7141c6d0553b57135f04\",\"name\":\"flickaj\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/author\/flickaj\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/fossil-records-help-us-understand-the-present-and-predict-future-ecosystems\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fossil records help us understand the present and predict future ecosystems - Evolution@91勛圖厙","og_description":"By Miqu\u00e9la Thornton Due to a multitude of human-driven impacts, the Earth is experiencing a\u00a0biodiversity crisis. 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