Palaeontologists must model the causes of biodiversity rather than simply cataloguing fossils, says Douglas Erwin, as they curate the only record of ecosystems undamaged by humans.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Disentangling rock record bias and common-cause from redundancy in the British fossil record
Nature Communications Open Access 04 September 2014
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Pandolfi, J. M. & Jackson, J. B. C. Ecol. Lett. 9, 818–826 (2006).
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr, Bambach, R. K., Raup, D. M. & Valentine, J. W. Nature 283, 435–437 (1981).
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr Paleobiology 10, 246–267 (1984).
Alroy, J. et al. Science 321, 97–100 (2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
See Editorial, page 251 , biodiversity special at http://www.nature.com/darwin and palaeontology podcast at http://go.nature.com/UuNpgJ
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Erwin, D. A call to the custodians of deep time. Nature 462, 282–283 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/462282a
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/462282a
This article is cited by
-
Rarity in mass extinctions and the future of ecosystems
Nature (2015)
-
Disentangling rock record bias and common-cause from redundancy in the British fossil record
Nature Communications (2014)
-
Opening dialogue between the recent and the long ago
Nature (2009)