The past vertebrate biodiversity of Southeast Asia and its relevance to ongoing environmental issues: current limitations and perspectives
Résumé
The study of past faunal assemblages and of their evolution during the last millennia can enable us to describe the long-term modification of the fauna and to understand how, when, and why, it evolved. In Southeast Asia, such studies are rare which makes complex the understanding of the trajectories of the Human/Biodiversity interactions on the middle and long terms. Data regarding past wildlife faunas could also be extremely useful to document the original ecological niche of species later forced to adapt under human activity pressure. The lack of such information can have important consequences regarding biodiversity conservation/restauration policies implementation. This contribution, focused on Southeast Asian past vertebrate assemblages, present the current scientific knowledge regarding the Pleistocene and Holocene past biodiversity of this region and discuss what could be done to improve it. Such an improvement could be done by the excavation of additional sites presenting different depositional conditions, by the construction of appropriate paleontological and anatomical reference points, by informing open access databases, and by the training of more local scientists.
Origine | Accord explicite pour ce dépôt |
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