About this Research Topic
Quaternary fossil accumulations provide important information on the ecology and evolution of numerous extinct and extant groups. Understanding the genesis (i.e. the environmental and ecological conditions that presided during their formation) and taphonomy of these deposits is essential to understanding the fidelity of inferences drawn from the study of these records. Consequentially, this also has important implications if this data is to be applied to conservation paleobiology.
This multidisciplinary Research Topic aims to understand the geological and paleoecological processes that lead to the formation of Quaternary fossil accumulations and to recognize the impact of taphonomic processes on the paleobiological and paleoecological information contained within these deposits. This will be achieved by bringing together and integrating the latest research, methods, and perspectives in the disciplines of Quaternary taphonomy, ichnology, paleoecology, paleopathology, and geochronology.
Articles submitted to this Research Topic must explore the Quaternary fossil record via taphonomic, ichnological, and paleoecological approaches in order to understand the different phenomena (i.e. stratigraphic, sedimentary, paleoclimatic and paleoecological) that control the incorporation of paleobiological, ichnological, and taphonomic information throughout the sedimentary history of organic remains. Papers that discuss the different types of controls that the processes and sedimentary environments can exert on the occurrence, diversity, abundance, and preservation of past organisms in the geological record are equally welcome. Articles that deal with prehistoric archaeology are also welcome, as long as evidence of interaction between prehistoric human beings and the organisms that lived in the Quaternary are discussed, especially accumulations of extinct vertebrates. Furthermore, articles correlating the mineralogical and sedimentary contents from a chemical perspective to reach the environmental conditions and dealing with cryptic environmental changes using taphonomy are also welcome.
This multidisciplinary Research Topic aims to understand the geological and paleoecological processes that lead to the formation of Quaternary fossil accumulations and to recognize the impact of taphonomic processes on the paleobiological and paleoecological information contained within these deposits. This will be achieved by bringing together and integrating the latest research, methods, and perspectives in the disciplines of Quaternary taphonomy, ichnology, paleoecology, paleopathology, and geochronology.
Articles submitted to this Research Topic must explore the Quaternary fossil record via taphonomic, ichnological, and paleoecological approaches in order to understand the different phenomena (i.e. stratigraphic, sedimentary, paleoclimatic and paleoecological) that control the incorporation of paleobiological, ichnological, and taphonomic information throughout the sedimentary history of organic remains. Papers that discuss the different types of controls that the processes and sedimentary environments can exert on the occurrence, diversity, abundance, and preservation of past organisms in the geological record are equally welcome. Articles that deal with prehistoric archaeology are also welcome, as long as evidence of interaction between prehistoric human beings and the organisms that lived in the Quaternary are discussed, especially accumulations of extinct vertebrates. Furthermore, articles correlating the mineralogical and sedimentary contents from a chemical perspective to reach the environmental conditions and dealing with cryptic environmental changes using taphonomy are also welcome.
Keywords: Fossilization, Isotopic Paleoecology, Paleopathology, Ichnology, Geochronology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
