Size does matter: Using the size of fossil marine mammals to estimate primary productivity in ancient oceans
As if we need another reason to justify paleontology as an important field of science, here's a good one: information regarding the history of this planet and its ecosystems is crucial in order to understand the health of our planet today, particularly with regard to sensitive but important topics like climate change. Oceans play a large role in the health of this planet, and the rate at which marine primary producers are able to participate in the carbon cycle depends on patterns of ocean circulation, climate and ecosystem structure, and other variable factors. But, how does one measure marine primary productivity in the the geologic record? It is difficult to do directly, but one indirect way is to look at metrics regarding the organisms that are primary consumers, those that rely directly on consuming plankton, marine algae, kelp, and other important primary producers in the oceanic realm. One can infer...