Meeting Abstract
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. I unveil extinction biases within the Caribbean that have transformed how we understand lizard extinctions globally. I also report on the excavation of a paleontological site in Puerto Rico that encompasses the past 20,000 years. Data analyzed from the site are concordant with overarching trends in the Caribbean fossil record: most notably, the large-scale extinction of terrestrial non-volant mammals and fewer losses in other taxonomic groups, such as lizards. Detailed stratigraphic records provide evidence of long-term site occupation for many Anolis species, although preliminary data suggest an instance of turnover in this genus. This newly described paleontological data highlights both the vulnerability and resiliency of lizards and Caribbean vertebrates more broadly, with relevance to regional conservation management.
