Understanding deep-time fish diversity evolution in response to environmental changes provides crucial insights into ancient marine ecosystem dynamics during global upheavals and offers historical perspectives for modern ocean conservation. Our research integrates three interconnected components:
First, we have developed the DeepBone Database, a comprehensive repository documenting the geological history (Cambrian to Holocene) of major fish groups including agnathans, placoderms, chondrichthyans, actinopterygians, and sarcopterygians. This database serves as the foundation for constructing high-resolution diversity curves across the Phanerozoic, with particular focus on the five mass extinction events.
Second, we are systematically collecting and refining origination-extinction data from the DeepBone Database for statistical modeling. This meticulous data preparation phase ensures the validity and robustness of subsequent quantitative analyses of diversity patterns at million-year resolution.
Third, using multivariate Bayesian modeling, we quantitatively assess how environmental factors (seawater temperature, oxygen content, sea-level fluctuations) influenced vertebrate diversity dynamics. Our analysis evaluates competing evolutionary theories – testing whether biotic interactions ("Red Queen" hypothesis) or abiotic factors ("Court Jester" hypothesis) predominantly drove diversity changes at different temporal scales. We examine critical transitions such as the Hangenberg event, which eliminated 32% of early vertebrate genera, to identify ecological stability thresholds in marine ecosystems.
Through this research, we will connect past biodiversity responses to environmental perturbations with contemporary conservation challenges, providing deep-time context for understanding marine ecosystem resilience to climate change.
 

Deep-time fish diversity; DeepBone Database; Mass extinction; Conservation Paleobiology