EOCENE INSECT FAUNA OF THE OKANAGAN HIGHLANDS: SPECIES RICHNESS AND ASSEMBLAGE RESPONSE TO SEASONAL EQUABILITY

Consensus has emerged in the last decade that seasonally equable climate was widespread in extratropical regions in the early Paleogene, a climatic regime with little modern analog. Fossil insect assemblages of the temperate Early and Middle Eocene Okanagan Highlands (British Columbia/Washington State) constitute an ideal model system for examining the consequences of Paleogene climatic equability for diversity.

Did increased equability result in higher species richness relative to modern temperate zones with higher temperature seasonality? Do warmer winters set in a context of temperate climate result in community assemblages (i.e. temperate/tropical mix) and associations not found today?