2516617

Collaborative research: Origination selectivity for body size among marine animals since the late Neoproterozoic.

This project seeks to understand how marine animal body size, and thus biodiversity, have been shaped by environmental change over Earth’s history.

By assembling the most comprehensive database of fossil body size measurements spanning the last 575 million years, the project will test whether the appearance of new marine animals follows predictable patterns linked to environmental factors.

While most paleontological work has examined why animal taxa disappear, this study focuses on how new taxa originate, filling a fundamental gap in understanding of biodiversity generation.

The findings will improve forecasts of how today’s rapidly shifting environments may affect species emergence and ecosystem resilience, issues that intersect national interests in food security, coastal economies, and biodiversity.

The project will (1) build on a standardized database of marine animal body size measurements, incorporating previously unpublished Ediacaran body-size data;

(2) test whether size bias of origination differs among major taxonomic groups, varies through geologic time, and changes consistently under distinct environmental regimes;

and (3) evaluate the influence of sampling completeness on observed selectivity patterns.

Body size is the chosen metric because it is easy to measure and correlates with key animal traits such as metabolic rate and generation time.

Statistical models will be applied to assess correlations between body size trends and proxies for marine anoxia, temperature, and other environmental variables.

The resulting analyses will quantify origination selectivity, a dimension that has been largely undocumented, and will generate open-access data for the broader scientific community.

The anticipated outcomes include improved predictive tools for assessing how future environmental change may shape biodiversity, and training the STEM workforce.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Subawards are not planned for this award.

The Leland Stanford Junior University

THE GOAL OF THIS FUNDING OPPORTUNITY, "SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY AND PALEOBIOLOGY", IS IDENTIFIED IN THE LINK: HTTPS://WWW.NSF.GOV/PUBLICATIONS/PUB_SUMM.JSP?ODS_KEY=NSF22597

47.050 - Geosciences

Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) [NSF]

Stanford, California 94305-2004 United States

Single Zip Code

Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology (22-597)