[Palaeontology, Vol. 55, Part 6, 2012, pp. 1155–1175] COMPLETENESS OF THE FOSSIL RECORD AND THE VALIDITY OF SAMPLING PROXIES AT OUTCROP LEVEL by ALEXANDER M. DUNHILL1*, MICHAEL J. BENTON1, RICHARD J. TWITCHETT2 and ANDREW J. NEWELL3 1School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen’s Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK; e-mails:
[email protected];
[email protected] 2School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK; e-mail:
[email protected] 3British Geological Survey, Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK; e-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author. Typescript received 13 May 2011; accepted in revised form 16 December 2011 Abstract: Most studies of the adequacy of the fossil record do not correlate well with the other sampling proxies, nor have been carried out at a global or continental scale, and with apparent diversity, suggesting that the total amount of they have used sampling proxies that generally do not incor- sedimentary rock preserved does not influence apparent porate all aspects of sampling (i.e. rock volume, accessibility, diversity at a local scale, that is, the rock record at outcrop effort). Nonetheless, such studies have identified positive cor- has been sampled efficiently. However, we do find some cor- relations between apparent diversity and various sampling relations between apparent diversity and proxies for worker proxies. The covariation of fossil and rock record signals has effort. The fact that the proxies do not correlate significantly been interpreted as evidence for bias or for a common cause, with each other suggests that none can be regarded as an all- such as sea level change, or as evidence that the signals are encompassing sampling proxy that covers all aspects of bias.