Reconstructing Ancient Food Webs

Reconstructing food webs from ancient ecosystems presents unique challenges, especially when working from limited fossil records. Jennifer Dunn recounts a conversation with Doug Irwin that sparked efforts to infer such food webs dating back to the Cambrian period, around half a billion years ago. The process required assembling a diverse group of paleobiologists and ecologists to collaboratively explore the ecological interactions of species that do not resemble modern organisms. This investigation led to creating a working group focused on determining how ancient species interacted within these ecosystems, which were vastly different from today's environments.