Taxonomic flux as a measure of evolutionary turnover

We introduce a new metric, "taxonomic flux", to quantify evolutionary trends both within and across taxonomic boundaries. This metric is normalized, which reduces the effect of sample size disparity between biologic groups and time intervals. Furthermore, this methodology considers stratigraphic range data as a whole, and measures relative growth or decline of diversity values as they deviate from system stability. Such trends may yield key information relating to evolutionary processes and forcing functions, especially if these trends are correlative within particular taxa or niche occupancy. Thus far, scientists and researchers have been stymied by absolute values derived from unequal dat…