The Lyons Paleoecology Lab focuses on the factors affecting and controlling species diversity at multiple scales across both space and time. Moreover, we are particularly interested in the effects of global climate change on species diversity and use the fossil record of mammals over the last 40,000 years to evaluate how current changes in global climate may affect diversity patterns in the future. Because it provides a useful way to compare modern species and communities to fossil species and communities, we focus on the similarities and differences in macroecological patterns across space and time.