Conservation paleobiology is a new, pragmatic, socially relevant discipline within paleobiology. Its emergence stems from the growing realization that the fossil record of the very recent past (the last centuries to millennia) can serve as an unprecedented baseline for studying rates and causes of ecological changes over time scales not accessible by studying modern conditions alone. Such a unique, multicentennial perspective can provide rigorous criteria for evaluating the current extent of ecosystem deterioration, enabling a realistic evaluation of the long-term context of anthropogenic disturbances and a critical assessment of the effectiveness of restoration efforts.

For example, in a recent study of coastal ecosystems, an extensive compilation of paleontological and archeological data was used to show that ecological deterioration often has deep historical roots. The compiled studies represented a wide range of time scales, from projects reaching back only a few decades to those spanning hundreds of thousands of years. In addition, they encompassed a wide spectrum of ecosystems, from high-latitude kelp forests of Alaska to tropical reefs of the Caribbean Sea.

Despite the great variety of ecosystems included in the compilation, virtually all cases revealed similar patterns: marine ecosystems were first altered by overfishing, an activity that invariably predated other anthropogenic disturbances by decades, centuries, or even millennia. Overfishing, which removes key members of marine ecosystems and often dramatically reduces total biomass, represents—most likely—a necessary precondition for various secondary disturbances such as eutrophication (overstimulation of algae and plant growth in aquatic systems due to natural or anthropogenic addition of excess nutrients), outbreaks of diseases, or species introduction.