Conservation Paleobilogy in Action

We were commissioned by Dr Erin Dillon of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Dr Catalina Pimiento of Swansea University to deliver a collection of spot illustrations and figures for their review paper Aligning paleobiological research with conservation priorities using elasmobranchs as a model published in the Cambridge University’s journal Paleobiology.

The two subjects to be covered by a total of 15 spot illustrations. The first lot, under the umbrella of “Conservation Paleobiology in Action”, illustrate a list of existing case studies of the real-life application of conservation paleobiology research in a variety of situations. The second lot, specifically illustrate the potential of elasmobranch (sharks, rays, skates and sawfish) fossil record to inform conservation efforts. 

The illustrations would serve a primary function as graphs in the research paper, but also support the researchers in outreach and communication efforts, such as presentations at symposia or social media promotion in evidence here. 

With this in mind, we had three constrains with this project: 

• All illustrations to fit a specific size and ratio

• Deliver illustrations in formats flexible for future communications

• Develop a colour palette based on the location of the research to unify all visuals for the project

 Developing the colour palette for this project was particularly fun. Dr Pimiento shared a photograph from a pebbled beach in South Wales, from which we identified two colour palettes. One based on the colours of the pebbles without any photographic manipulation; the second we increased the saturation levels to bring out information the photograph wasn’t quite providing and that would probably be closer to what Dr Pimiento saw on the beach.

A, insect herbivory increased in North America during the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (rapid global warming ca. 56 Ma), offering an analogue for how future warming might precipitate heightened insect damage to plants (Labandeira and Currano Reference Labandeira and Currano2013);

B, morphological traits of fossil Caribbean corals during the Plio-Pleistocene were used to predict the extinction risk of extant corals and validate their conservation status (Raja et al. Reference Raja, Lauchstedt, Pandolfi, Kim, Budd and Kiessling2021). Examples of conservation paleobiology studies resulting in tangible conservation outcomes are accumulating:

C, caribou antlers exposed on landscapes dating back decades to millennia have supported spatial management plans (Miller et al. Reference Miller, Crowley, Bataille, Wald, Kelly, Gaetano, Bahn and Druckenmiller2021, Reference Miller, Wald and Druckenmiller2023);

D, excavations from Makauwahi Cave Reserve on Kaua‘i have informed forest restoration and the introduction of giant tortoises to fill lost ecological roles (Burney et al. Reference Burney, James, Burney, Olson, Kikuchi, Wagner and Burney2001);

E, intertidal death assemblages, archaeological shell middens, and modern clams have guided Indigenous-led ecosystem restoration goals and traditional clam gardening practices in the Salish Sea of British Columbia, Canada (Toniello et al. Reference Toniello, Lepofsky, Lertzman-Lepofsky, Salomon and Rowell2019); F, Holocene-age coral subfossils defined spatially explicit historical baselines for coral outplanting in Hong Kong (Cybulski et al. Reference Cybulski, Husa, Duprey, Mamo, Tsang, Yasuhara, Xie, Qiu, Yokoyama and Baker2020);

G, estimates of pre-alteration (before 1900 CE) hydrology reconstructed from pollen and mollusks were used to set salinity targets in the Florida Bay and manage freshwater flow through the Greater Everglades ecosystem (Marshall et al. Reference Marshall, Wingard and Pitts2014; Wingard et al. Reference Wingard, Bernhardt and Wachnicka2017). Illustrations by Ian Cooke Tapia (Cooked Illustrations)