Melissa Kemp
University of Texas at Austin, USA
July 5, 2022
Extinction, Colonization, and Conservation in a biodiversity hotspot: Lessons from the Caribbean fossil record
The Caribbean is one of the most well-studied biodiversity hotspots, regions that in total cover less than 3% of the Earth’s surface yet host the majority of the planet’s endemic species. But the diversity of today’s Caribbean is only a fraction of what once existed there, as climate, sea-level fluctuations, and multiple human colonization events have restricted the ranges of many species, or worse, contributed to
their extinction. Given this past history of environmental perturbations, paleobiology is
well-suited to inform ongoing conservation needs in this system. Such perspective from
the past is essential now more than ever before, as continued habitat degradation, non-
native species introductions, and ongoing range contraction, extirpation, and extinction
threaten to erode the remaining biodiversity. My research explores how one seemingly successful group of Caribbean vertebrates, the lizards, have been impacted by environmental perturbations throughout the Pleistocene, Holocene, and into the
Anthropocene. By utilizing historic museum specimens and fossils from paleontological
sites, as well as the entire breadth of modern Caribbean lizard diversity, I unveil extinction biases and colonization patterns within the Caribbean, and the ramifications of these dynamics on community structure and resilience. These observations have transformed how we understand lizard extinctions globally and have the potential to
shape conservation policy for this dynamic group of vertebrates.
Ian Castro
University of Cincinnati, USA
July 12, 2022
TBD
Michael Kipp
CalTech, USA
July 19, 2022
TBD
Anjana Khatwa
Wessex Museums, UK
July 26, 2022
TBD
Matteo Fabbri
Field Museum of Natural History, USA
August 2, 2022
TBD
Sean Thatcher
August 9, 2022
TBD
Jazmin Scarlett
University of East Anglia, UK
August 16, 2022
paleopercs.com 