Post-extinction recovery of the Phanerozoic oceans and biodiversity hotspots.

The fossil record of marine invertebrates has long fuelled the debate as to whether or not there are limits to global diversity in the sea. Ecological theory states that, as diversity grows and ecological niches are filled, the strengthening of biological interactions imposes limits on diversity. However, the extent to which biological interactions have constrained the growth of diversity over evolutionary time remains an open question.