Advancing ecology and evolution through continental scientific drilling.

The geological record contains a rich history of the coupled evolution of life and the Earth that sustains it. However, that history is often buried deeply and is difficult to access. Scientific drilling can access these buried histories and provides foundational insights into eco-evolutionary dynamics across an unparalleled range of timescales. Recent research that demonstrates the power of continental drilling includes our understanding of mass extinctions, phenotypic trait evolution, the context of hominin evolution, and episodes of adaptive radiation. Scientific advances have created strategic opportunities for reinvestment in continental drilling because of exciting new proxies and technologies, which promise to shed light on long-standing eco-evolutionary questions, such as how climate change, biogeochemical cycles, and landscape evolution drive eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Duke Scholars

Author John Wiley Williams Jr. Medicine, General Internal Medicine