Erin Saupe is a paleobiologist in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, and a Tutorial Fellow at St. Hugh’s College. She investigates interactions between life and environments over geological time scales. This work addresses questions on the origin, maintenance, and conservation of biological diversity, with specific focus on elucidating the controls on community and species’ responses to environmental change across various spatial and temporal scales. The goal of this past-looking approach is to better anticipate how current and future climate change will impact Earth’s biodiversity.