Preservation bias and the echinoid fossil record
An understanding of the preservation biases likely to affect organisms is essential when dealing with paleoecologic reconstructions, evolutionary histories and patterns of diversity. My research on echinoid preservation involved studies of fossil material as well as field and laboratory experimentation. I demonstrated the phylogenetic control on preservation potential within four echinoid families and the predictability of the condition of post-Paleozoic fossil occurrences (Greenstein, 1991). Additionally, I documented that changes in the way fossil material is preserved coincide with macroevolutionary patterns within one echinoid family since its apparent origination in Triassic time (Greenstein, 1992), suggesting that perceived evolutionary trends may be more an artifact of the vagaries of the preservation process than a real phenomenon. Finally, I studied the impact of preservation bias in reflecting the distribution of echinoid populations in the fossil record (Greenstein, 1993).