Paleoecology

Terms:
preservational filter, natural trap, sinkhole, taphonomy, uniformitarianism, biocoenose, thanatocoenose, disharmonious faunas, climatic equability, functional morphology, megafauna, Pleistocene Overkill Hypothesis

biocoenose: A fossil deposit that represents a true community in the past.

climatic equability: The concept that ice-age climates consisted of mild winters and cool summers so that seasonality was less striking than today.

disharmonious faunas: Ice-age fossil deposits that are comprised of species that were sympatric in the past, but are allopatric today due to climate and community change.

functional morphology: The study of morphologic features of an organisms and their function.

megafauna: A collective term for all the large mammals that once existed in the Pleistocene, but disappeared approximately 10,000 years ago.

natural trap: A depositional environment where species that enter it become trapped and die.

Pleistocene Overkill Hypothesis: States that humans were primarily responsible for the demise of the megafauna at the close of the Pleistocene, approximately 10,000 years ago, from overhunting as human populations expanded at that time.

preservational filter: The selective preservation of fossil remains in a given depositional environment.

sinkhole: An cave in limestone formed by water erosion that usually has a vertical entrance from the surface.

taphonomy:  The study of the history of deposition, such as determining factors and processes that affect fossil accumulations and preservation.

thanatocoenose: A fossil deposit comprised of species from different communities that existed in the past.

uniformitarianism: The geological principal that weathering and erosional events we observe today were occurring in the past as well.