2 Interdisciplinary Paleontology: New approaches to solving complex paleontological problems (Part I)

Paleontology is increasingly drawing upon insight from other disciplines to solve complex problems and generate more accurate reconstructions of past life. This session will illustrate novel interdisciplinary research and provide tools to develop such approaches.

Monday, 18 May 2026
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alvarado F

Applying Principles of Conservation Paleobiology to Scleractinian Coral Diversity Investigations in the Greater Antilles Caribbean, Pliocene to Present

Paper number: 2-6
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:20 AM

Authors

Abstract

As anthropogenic effects continue to threaten coral reefs, the need to implement conservation efforts and predict the future of reefs grows more urgent. This study applies principles of conservation paleobiology to investigate whether scleractinian coral diversity has changed through geologic time from the Pliocene Epoch (5.333 Ma) to the present day across the Greater Antilles ecoregion of the Caribbean. If coral diversity remains unchanged, these coral data may apply to future conservation efforts. Coral data were obtained from peer-reviewed articles, published government reports, the Paleobiology Database, the Atlantic Gulf and Rapid Assessment Coral Dashboard, and the Center for Underwater Science at Indiana University. Coral species were divided into nine time bins of unequal duration and compiled into a database recording 108 coral species and 37 genera from 211 fossil and modern localities. Gamma species and generic richness were found to follow Gaussian distributions over time. Chi-squared tests revealed a statistically significant change in gamma species richness over time (p-value = 1.04 x 10-5). When comparing coral species diversity between the oldest (Zanclean) and youngest (Meghalayan) time bins, there was 87.5% dissimilarity (Jaccard). Across the Greater Antilles ecoregion, the Dominican Republic was the only country with coral species present across all nine time bins and a statistically significant change in alpha species richness over time (p-value = 4.26 x 10-3). When examining all coral species over time by country, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic shared a species dissimilarity of 33.7%; however, when both countries were compared to all other countries and territories, species dissimilarity averaged 50.2%. Results of this study show a statistically significant change in coral species richness and diversity over time across the Greater Antilles ecoregion. Although these findings reject the hypothesis, a subset of data provides a useful conservation paleobiology perspective when seeking solutions for modern coral restoration efforts. We suggest the five most abundant and geographically widespread species observed across all time bins, O. annularis, S. siderea, M. cavernosa, P. astreoides, and A. agaricites, have proven resilient to change and should be targeted for reef restoration. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410513

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