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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Paleoecology: An Adequate Window on the Past?

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Starting from Ernst Haeckel’s famous definition of ecology, our review considers the premises and the meaning of paleoecological research. Unlike current ecology, paleoecology has to pay more attention when dealing with ‘‘facts’’: the concept of uniformitarianism is presented and demonstrates the importance of philosophical constructs for scientific work. The middle‐range theory attempts to filter out false conclusions. Abiotic factors have had a strong influence on adaptive evolution; volcanism, tectonism, and climate are exemplified. Subsequently we discuss the biotic viewpoint with regard to aspects of fossil findings and in this context taphonomy, stratigraphic research, and interactions between floral and faunal environment. In a synthesis, we present three cross sections in human evolution in different time horizons (early–middle–late) to exemplify the multidisciplinarity of paleoecology and present some key events that probably altered the direction of radiations among hominids. Obviously, human evolution is not a special kind of evolution; it follows strictly the rules of evolutionary biology and hence depends undoubtedly on environmental influences.