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Originally published in Science Express on 12 June 2003
Science 18 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5631, pp. 321 - 322
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086420
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Perspectives

PALEONTOLOGY:
Making the Best of a Patchy Fossil Record

Andrew B. Smith

For the past two decades, most paleontologists have assumed that the fossil record, although incomplete, provides a reasonably accurate representation of past biodiversity levels. In his Perspective, Smith explains that this assumption may not be correct. He highlights the report by Crampton et al., who show that mollusc diversity in New Zealand over the past 60 million years correlates with the surface area of exposed rock. This sampling bias must be considered in studies of past biodiversity.

The author is in the Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK. Email: abs{at}nhm.ac.uk

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E-Letters:

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Is New Zealand's Cenozoic "Over-split"?
Stephen A. Leslie
Science Online, 28 Jul 2003 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)