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

Quantifying the extent of phylogenetic niche conservatism in radiations of extinct mollusks

Paper number: 2-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:20 AM – 11:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

The fundamental niche represents the conditions in which a species can survive and reproduce, with abiotic niche dimensions having major impacts on the survival and establishment of populations across geographic space. Studying the tolerance ranges of species to these conditions sheds light on how species have inhabited regions with different pressures, especially when these patterns are seen under a historical lens. Here, we use phylogenetic hypotheses of mollusk radiations with different degrees of extinction to assess the degree to which abiotic niche dimensions have been conserved over evolutionary timescales. We estimate the extent of phylogenetic niche conservatism (PNC) using clean occurrence records and abiotic environmental layers to obtain character matrices for time-calibrated phylogenetic trees. Our approach is based on maximum likelihood ancestral character reconstructions of individual niche dimensions’ binned ranges using the R package nichevol. Additionally, we explore the implications of using time-specific niche modeling (tenm) in estimating niche stability and the relationship between species abundances and niches’ centroids. Our findings suggest that phylogenetic niche conservatism is the most common state in the niche dynamics of each radiation across the K-Pg boundary (e.g., turritellids and crassatellids), followed by niche retractions. Therefore, these patterns show that after dramatic events, such as mass extinctions, species show niche shifts less frequently, at least preliminarily. We also highlight the importance of testing niche conservatism within a phylogenetic framework, in contrast to niche overlap analyses, to avoid the overestimation of niche divergence. This work shows how changes in abiotic tolerances vary across different radiations, having implications for macroevolutionary studies of speciation and extinction.

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

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410695

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