We employed IDL to simulate the biodiversity evolution of planktonic species in the Early Triassic and to model biodiversity indices and ecomorphologic parameters for large European Neogene continental mammals.

IDL's flexibility allowed us to generate clear and straightforward visualizations of our results through its large array of pre-packaged routines. Multiple graphic output windows permitted a direct comparison of complementary results such as the effect of SST and currents on the distribution of Early Triassic ammonoid biodiversity. The creation of customized GIS is facilitated by IDL, and the parameters involved in spatial interpolation of data can easily be monitored in several ways (e.g., spacing of grid points for triangulation and TPS, range of values to be interpolated, interpolated data smoothing, spherical gridding for triangulation). The program routines are easily modified by users for their own purposes.

We used IDL version 5.2, which does not provide all 2-D interpolation methods, limiting the type of data that can be analysed, but it complements more specialized software such as Arcview©, which offers more interpolations but is less capable of importing palaeogeographic maps. In addition, the latest version of IDL (6.0) offers a more convivial user interface as well as improved options, including several additional interpolation methods, further animation possibilities, 3-D reconstruction and auto-executable programs. Thus, with a minimum knowledge of computer programming, this undervalued meta-language offers an array of easily usable tools for a large proportion of palaeontologists.