La naturaleza del registro fósil y el análisis de las extinciones

Abstract

The fossil record is incomplete, biassed and it shows stratigraphical disorder. However, these features of the fossil record do not reduce the usefulness of the pa 1 Depto. y UEI de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas (UCM) e Instituto de Geología Económica (UCM-CSIC), 28040-Madrid, sixto@eucmax.sim.ucm.es. 267 Sixto R. Fernández-López La naturaleza del registro fósil y el análisis de las extinciones laeontological data to identify and to interpret the successive extinction events. The information of the fossil record is the only one about the extinct taxa and their chronological order. The validity of the palaeontological data with respect to the available information in the fossil record, as well as the incompleteness and the bias of the fossil record with respect to the original palaeobiological information, are testable using independent criteria. The continuity of the fossil record, as well as the continuity of the stratigraphical record, are of operative nature and testable. The lack of evidence of one or several species in the fossil record, and the consequent reduction of taxonomic diversity, can be a result from processes of separate categories: sampling, differential preservation, stratigraphical gaps or palaeobiological changes. The fossil record contains the most relevant information to formulate testable hypothesis referring extinction events occurred during the history of the Earth.