In order to investigate whether community-level dynamics play a role in the origination and turnover of individual species, bulk fossil samples will be collected in the extensively studied Neogene sections of the Dominican Republic. The sections exposed in the Cibao Valley contain a rich fossil fauna that has been employed in a series of intensive quantitative analyses of the tempo and mode of speciation. These studies document unambiguous episodes of morphological stasis and punctuated speciation in multiple lineages of bryozoans and molluscs. The faunal and paleoecological context of these well-studied speciation patterns has not been investigated in detail previously. This study will establish a quantitative paleoecological context for these episodes of stasis and change in order to answer a suite of interrelated theoretical questions concerning the relationship between species-level stasis and community-level stability. This study will investigate the interaction between community- and species-levels processes by addressing the following questions: (1) To what extent do stable faunal assemblages persist in the face of physical, environmental, and biotic disruption in the Neogene of the Dominican Republic? (2) Are changes in biofacies composition concentrated in time? (3) Are there times when multiple lineages undergo morphological shifts in concert? (4) Is there a relationship between changes in species-level morphology and biofacies composition? This study will build upon an extensive multidisciplinary research program called the Dominican Republic Project (DRP) that has focused on the Neogene geology and paleobiology of the Dominican Republic.
