Preservation biases in the fossil record distort species ecological niche and distribution models

Ecological niche models (ENMs) increasingly leverage the fossil record to understand species’ environmental associations and predict their geographic distributions. However, fossils do not occur uniformly through time and space, which can compromise the robustness of ENMs and thus affect ecological conclusions. Here, we assessed how preservation biases in the fossil record impact our ability to reconstruct ecological niches and distributions of North American small mammals during the late Quaternary. First, using small mammal fossil occurrences and associated depositional environment data, we quantified preservation potential (the likelihood that a given environment supports fossil preservation) and the preservation niche (environmental correlates of preservation) for three late Quaternary time periods (the Last Glacial Maximum, the deglacial period, and the Holocene). Second, we imposed the calculated preservation potential on simulated distributions of six virtual species to evaluate ..., , # Preservation biases in the fossil record distort species ecological niche and distribution models

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rbm](10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rbm)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: preservation_biases.zip

**Description:** 

This zip file contains an RProject for our associated manuscript. The code contained in the scripts folder are sequential and prepare the necessary environmental data for fitting MaxEnt and PCA models to occurrence data of mammals, virtual species and fossil occurrences. Subsequently, we use these outputs and combine them in a 'virtual ecology' framework to explore how preservation potential can distort ecological niche models.

The primary outputs of our project are stored in the \"./output/\" folder, and are primarily split between our preservation potential layers (see the \"predictor_data\" and \"taphonomy_maps\" folders), the creation of real species ENMS (see the \"occurrence_data\" and \"species_enm\" ...,

生态位模型（Ecological Niche Models, ENMs）日益依托化石记录来解析物种的环境关联特征，并预测其地理分布范围。然而，化石在时间与空间维度上的产出并不均匀，这可能降低生态位模型的稳健性，进而影响生态学研究结论。本研究针对晚更新世时期的北美小型哺乳动物，评估了化石记录的保存偏差对其生态位与分布重建能力的影响。
其一，我们利用小型哺乳动物化石产出数据及配套沉积环境数据，量化了晚更新世三个时段（末次冰盛期、冰消期及全新世）的保存潜力（即特定环境支持化石保存的概率）与保存生态位（即与化石保存相关的环境关联因子）。
其二，我们将计算得到的保存潜力应用于六个虚拟物种的模拟分布，以评估……

# 化石记录中的保存偏差会扭曲物种生态位与分布模型

数据集DOI: [10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rbm]

## 数据与文件结构

### 文件与变量

#### 文件：preservation_biases.zip

**描述：**
此压缩包包含本研究配套论文的R项目。脚本文件夹内的代码按序执行，可为适配哺乳动物、虚拟物种及化石产出数据的最大熵模型（MaxEnt）与主成分分析（Principal Component Analysis, PCA）模型准备所需的环境数据。后续我们将结合这些输出结果与虚拟生态学框架，探究保存潜力对生态位模型的扭曲作用。
本项目的核心输出存储于"./output/"文件夹中，主要分为保存潜力图层（详见"predictor_data"与"taphonomy_maps"文件夹）、真实物种生态位模型构建（详见"occurrence_data"与"species_enm"……）