Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Program (ETE)

The Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ETE) Program was formed by a group of professional researchers in paleontology who study the evolutionary paleoecology of land ecosystems. We share a conviction that long-term patterns of evolutionary change cannot be fully understood without knowledge of changes in ecology (at many scales) over geologic time periods, and an understanding of the interaction between ecological and evolutionary processes. Thus, we are interested not only in how the environment has changed, but how ecosystems themselves have changed, and how evolution has occurred in its ecological context over the last 400 million years. The ETE database captures and organizes fossil evidence concerning land biotas in support of ETEs research objectives. The ETE Program is is affiliated with the Departments of Paleobiology and Anthropology (Human Origins Program) at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.