The Palaeo Pad

The ecological information which can be gleaned from the fossil record is controlled by the processes of accumulation involved, according to a paper by the University of Chicago, which is to be published in the May issue of The American Naturalist.

A study of fossil corals has provided fresh optimism that reef ecosystems may be better equipped to deal with present day environmental stresses than previously thought. The research, published in the latest issue of Ecology, looked at a time when sea levels had fallen to their lowest known height.