J Bret Bennington,^1,* William A. Dimichele,² Catherine Badgley,³ Richard K. Bambach,² Paul M. Barretthttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0412-3000,⁴ Anna K. Behrensmeyer,² René Bobe,⁵ Robyn J. Burnham,³ Edward B. Daeschler,⁶ Jan Van Dam,⁷ Jussi T. Eronen,⁸ Douglas H. Erwin,² Seth Finnegan,⁹ Steven M. Holland,⁵ Gene Hunt,² David Jablonski,¹⁰ Stephen T. Jackson,¹¹ Bonnie F. Jacobs,¹² Susan M. Kidwell,¹⁰ Paul L. KOCH,¹³ Michal J. Kowalewski,¹⁴ Conrad C. Labandeira,² Cindy V. Looy,² S. Kathleen Lyons,² Philip M. Novack-Gottshall,¹⁵ Richard Potts,² Peter D. Roopnarine,¹⁶ Caroline A.E. Strömberg,¹⁷ Hans-Dieter Sues,² Peter J. Wagner,² Peter Wilf,¹⁸ Scott L. Wing<sup>2

1</sup>aHofstra University, Department of Geology, Hempstead, New York 11549, USA;
²bSmithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington
³cUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA;
⁴dNatural History Museum, London, UK;
⁵eUniversity of Georgia, Athens, USA;
⁶fAcademy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;
⁷gVrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands;
⁸hUniversity of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;
⁹iStanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA;
¹⁰jUniversity of Chicago, Illinois, USA;
¹¹kUniversity of Wyoming, Laramie, USA;
¹²lSouthern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA;
¹³mUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, USA;
¹⁴nVirginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, USA;
¹⁵oUniversity of West Georgia, Carrollton, USA;
¹⁶pCalifornia Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA;
¹⁷qUniversity of Washington, Seattle, USA;
¹⁸rPennsylvania State University, University Park, USA geojbb@hofstra.edu

^** Corresponding author