Michael Foote

About

Michael J. Foote is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Geophysical Sciences. His research interests include documenting and interpreting large-scale patterns in the history of life, with current focuses on biogeography, evolutionary paleoecology, and macroevolution. Foote has contributed to understanding ecological structures of diversity-dependent diversification in marine bivalves, diversity-dependent evolutionary rates in early Palaeozoic zooplankton, and the evolutionary dynamics of taxonomic structure. His work also includes studies on the rise and fall of species occupancy in Cenozoic fossil mollusks and determinants of extinction in the fossil record. His publications are widely cited, and he collaborates with other researchers in related fields.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Paleontology
• Business
• Evolutionary biology
• Geography
• Geology

Selected publications

• Greenhouse−icehouse transition in the Late Ordovician marks a step change in extinction regime in the marine plankton

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2016-01-25 · 108 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Two distinct regimes of extinction dynamic are present in the major marine zooplankton group, the graptolites, during the Ordovician and Silurian periods (486-418 Ma). In conditions of "background" extinction, which dominated in the Ordovician, taxonomic evolutionary rates were relatively low and the probability of extinction was highest among newly evolved species ("background extinction mode"). A sharp change in extinction regime in the Late Ordovician marked the onset of repeated severe spike…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pacing of Paleozoic macroevolutionary rates by Milankovitch grand cycles

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2018-05-14 · 61 citations

  articleOpen access

  Periodic fluctuations in past biodiversity, speciation, and extinction have been proposed, with extremely long periods ranging from 26 to 62 million years, although forcing mechanisms remain speculative. In contrast, well-understood periodic Milankovitch climate forcing represents a viable driver for macroevolutionary fluctuations, although little evidence for such fluctuation exists except during the Late Cenozoic. The reality, magnitude, and drivers of periodic fluctuations in macroevolutionar…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Diversity-dependent evolutionary rates in early Palaeozoic zooplankton

  Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2018-02-28 · 36 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The extent to which biological diversity affects rates of diversification is central to understanding macroevolutionary dynamics, yet no consensus has emerged on the importance of diversity-dependence of evolutionary rates. Here, we analyse the species-level fossil record of early Palaeozoic graptoloids, documented with high temporal resolution, to test directly whether rates of diversification were influenced by levels of standing diversity within this major clade of marine zooplankton. To circ…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Geographic ranges of genera and their constituent species: structure, evolutionary dynamics, and extinction resistance

  Paleobiology · 2016-03-09 · 29 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We explore the relationships among the geographic ranges of genera, the ranges and positions of their constituent species, and the number of species they contain, considering variation among coeval genera and changes within genera over time. Measuring range size as the maximal distance, or extent , between occurrences within a taxon, we find that the range of the most widespread species is a good predictor of the range of the genus, and that the number of species is a better predictor s…

  PublisherDOI

• Diversity-Dependent Diversification in the History of Marine Animals

  The American Naturalist · 2022 · 26 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  AbstractBy comparing detrended estimates of diversity (taxonomic richness) and rates of origination, extinction, and net diversification, I show that at the global scale over the course of the Phanerozoic eon, rates of diversification and origination are negatively correlated with diversity. By contrast, extinction rates are only weakly correlated with diversity for the most part. These results hold for both genus- and species-level data and for many alternative analytical protocols. The asymmet…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mark E. Patzkowsky

  Pennsylvania State University

  202 shared

• Wolfgang Kiessling

  178 shared

• David J. Bottjer

  177 shared

• Martin Aberhan

  Museum für Naturkunde

  177 shared

• James S. Crampton

  151 shared

• Arnold I. Miller

  University of Cincinnati

  145 shared

• Richard K. Bambach

  138 shared

• Shanan E. Peters

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  131 shared

Labs

• University of Chicago Geophysical SciencesPI

Similar researchers at University of Chicago

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• Salikoko S. Mufweneh-45
• Maureen L. Colemanh-35