European endemic mammalian diversity dynamics in the Eocene/Oligocene transition environmental change context – ENLIVEN

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (ca. 33.9–33.5 Ma) is considered as a key step in Cenozoic climate evolution and coincides with one of the main extinction events in Europe. It corresponds to a major faunal turnover associated with the extinction of 50% of the placental mammals and a shift in mammalian communities: most of the Eocene species have no close relatives in the Oligocene. Indeed, mammals had evolved independently in insular Europe during the Eocene and the endemic European mammals (EEM) were largely replaced by Asiatic newcomers during the Oligocene, setting up the modern European mammalian fauna. The overarching goal of ENLIVEN is to dissect the process of biological extinction through the study of the biodiversity dynamics of EEM and their response to modifications of their environment, in a climatic change context.
This project will exploit the unparalleled fossil record from the Quercy phosphate infillings localities in France to test the impact of biotic (intrinsic like diet, body mass, brain complexity, or extrinsic such as competition or predation) and abiotic factors (temperature, sea level) on the diversity dynamics of EEM. ENLIVEN implies an ambitious sampling effort at the mammal and floral scale and contrasts with previous approaches by its integrative and multifactorial nature. Using birth-death models and phylogenetic comparative methods, it will give access to key aspects of the EEM extinction including the understanding of specificities of extinction victims, survivors, and replacement taxa, and potential links between life history traits and extinction magnitude/survivorship per clade.