scholarly journals Higher taxa in the fossil record and the recognition of evolutionary events: patterns vs. processes

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 94-94
Author(s):  
David E. Fastovsky ◽  
Peter M. Sheehan
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Shannon Index ◽  
Ecological Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Hell Creek Formation ◽  
Taxonomic Level ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
The Family ◽  
Terrestrial Sediments

The fossil record is commonly (but not universally) invoked as an historical record with which to test evolutionary scenarios. The process by which this takes place involves the recognition of patterns of taxa in a temporal framework. The patterns are in turn interpreted as the result of some evolutionary mechanism. We submit that if the fossil record is to be a tool in evolutionary studies, the use of appropriately-defined higher taxa can be consistent with the objective of recognizing patterns from which evolutionary events can be inferred.We implemented a study to monitor the ecological diversity of “families” of dinosaurs through the last 2.2 million years of the Cretaceous in the terrestrial sediments of the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana. We concluded, using the Shannon index and rarefaction as monitors, that at the “family” level, the ecological diversity of dinosaurs remained constant.We suspect that the taxa we designated as “families” did not branch ancestrally at equivalent points in their respective phylogenies. Nevertheless, each is a monophyletic group, established and united by synapomorphies. We therefore measured and tracked the relative proportions of monophyletic groups through sequential time slices of the latest Cretaceous. We interpreted this as a measure of ecological diversity.The phylogenetic methods that were used to define the extinct “families” in our study are epistemologically indistinguishable from methods that are used to establish monophyletic fossil groups at any taxonomic level, including the lowest levels. Why should special significance be attributed to a taxonomic level (i.e., species) that is obtained by means no different from those used to obtain the other levels?Use of the fossil record in evolutionary reconstruction requires the recognition of patterns, and the attribution of evolutionary mechanisms to those patterns. It is unlikely that selection acts on units other than populations which arguably, are not even taxa. Recognition of historical patterns rather than causality or process, therefore, may be the unique province of the stratigraphic record.

scholarly journals The concept of correlated progression as the basis of a model for the evolutionary origin of major new taxa

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1618) ◽  
pp. 1667-1673 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Exact Sequence ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Related Concept ◽  
Taxonomic Level ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Selection Force ◽  
Small Increments ◽  
Key Innovations

Understanding the evolutionary processes responsible for the long treks through morphospace associated with the origin of new higher taxa is hampered by the lack of a realistic and usable model that accounts for long-term phenotypic evolvability. The systems-related concept of correlated progression, in which all the traits are functionally linked and so constrained to evolve by small increments at a time in parallel with each other, provides the basis for such a model. Implications for the process of evolution at high taxonomic level are that: the evolving traits must be considered together as a system, and the exact sequence of incremental changes in characters is indeterminable; there are no identifiable key innovations; selection acts on the phenotype as a whole rather than on individual traits; and the selection force is therefore multidimensional. Application of the model to the pattern of evolution of traits and trait states as revealed by the fossil record of the stem groups of such taxa as mammals, turtles and tetrapods generates realistic testable hypotheses about how such groups evolved.

Molecular phylogeny and divergence time estimates of Penaeid Shrimp Lineages (Decapoda: Penaeidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2107 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAROLINA M VOLOCH ◽  
PABLO R FREIRE ◽  
CLAUDIA A M RUSSO
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Penaeid Shrimp ◽  
Divergence Time Estimates ◽  
Time Estimates ◽  
Global Clock ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
The Family ◽  
Molecular Studies ◽  
Triassic Period

Fossil record of penaeids indicates that the family exists since the Triassic period, but extant genera appeared only recently in Tertiary strata. Molecular based divergence time estimates on the matter of penaeid radiation were never properly addressed, due to shortcomings of the global molecular clock assumptions. Here, we studied the diversification patterns of the family, uncovering, more specifically, a correlation between fossil and extant Penaeid fauna. For this, we have used a Bayesian framework that does not assume a global clock. Our results suggest that Penaeid genera originated between 20 million years ago and 43 million years ago, much earlier than expected by previous molecular studies. Altogether, these results promptly discard late Tertiary or even Quaternary hypotheses that presumed a major glaciations influence on the diversification patterns of the family.

scholarly journals Historical evolutionary information in the traditional Linnean hierarchy

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 16-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Bambach ◽  
J. John Sepkoski
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Latitudinal Gradients ◽  
Evolutionary Information ◽  
Simulation Studies ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Stability ◽  
And Function

The first two ranks above the species level in the traditional Linnean hierarchy — the genus and family — are species based: genera have been erected to unify groups of morphologically similar, closely related species and families have been erected to group genera recognized as closely related because of the shared morphologic characteristics of their species. Diversity patterns of traditional genera and families thus appear congruent with those of species in (a) the Recent (e. g., latitudinal gradients in many groups), (b) compilations of all marine taxa for the entire Phanerozoic (including the stage level), (c) comparisons through time within individual taxa (e. g., Foraminifera, Rugosa, Conodonta), and (d) simulation studies. Genera and families often have a more robust fossil record of diversity than species, especially for poorly sampled groups (e. g., echinoids), because of the range-through record of these polytypic taxa. Simulation studies indicate that paraphyly among traditionally defined taxa is not a fatal problem for diversity studies; in fact, when degradation of the quality of the fossil record is modelled, both diversity and rates of origination and extinction are better represented by including paraphyletic taxa than by restricting data to monophyletic clades. This result underscores the utility of traditional rank-based analyses of the history of diversity.In contrast, the three higher ranks of the Linnean hierarchy — orders, classes and phyla — are defined and recognized by key character complexes assumed to be rooted deep in the developmental program and, therefore, considered to be of special significance. These taxa are unified on the basis of body plan and function, not species morphology. Even if paraphyletic, recognition of such taxa is useful because they represent different functional complexes that reflect biological organization and major evolutionary innovations, often with different ecological capacities. Phanerozoic diversity patterns of orders, classes and phyla are not congruent with those of lower taxa; the higher groups each increased rapidly in the early Paleozoic, during the explosive diversification of body plans in the Cambrian, and then remained stable or declined slightly after the Ordovician. The diversity history of orders superficially resembles that of lower taxa, but this is a result only of ordinal turnover among the Echinodermata coupled with ordinal radiation in the Chordata; it is not a highly damped signal derived from the diversity of species, genera, or families. Despite the stability of numbers among post-Ordovician Linnean higher taxa, the diversity of lower taxa within many of these Bauplan groups fluctuated widely, and these diversity patterns signal embedded ecologic information, such as differences in flexibility in filling or utilizing ecospace.Phylogenetic analysis is vital for understanding the origins and genealogical structure of higher taxa. Only in such fashion can convergence and its implications for ecological constraints and/or opportunities be understood. But blind insistence on the use of monophyletic classifications in all studies would obscure some of the important information contained in traditional taxonomic groupings. The developmental modifications that characterize Linnean higher taxa (and traditionally separate them from their paraphyletic ancestral taxa) provide keys to understanding the role of shifting ecology in macroevolutionary success.

scholarly journals Diversity of the Crinocheta (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea) from Early Miocene Chiapas amber, Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Broly ◽  
María De Lourdes Serrano-Sánchez ◽  
Francisco J. Vega
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽  
New Genera ◽  
Terrestrial Isopods ◽  
Water Influence ◽  
The Family

Currently, the Onisicdea (terrestrial isopods) is a massive Crustacea suborder of more than 3 700 species, but our knowledge of their paleodiversity is poor. In this paper, we present ten fossils of Crinocheta, the largest clade within the Onisicdea, discovered in Early Miocene (23 Ma) amber of Chiapas. We described three new genera and six new species including Palaeolibrinus spinicornis gen. nov. sp. nov., Armadilloniscus miocaenicus sp. nov., Archeostenoniscus robustus gen. nov. sp. nov., Archeostenoniscus mexicanus sp. nov., Palaeospherarmadillo mazanticus gen. nov. sp. nov., and Palaeospherarmadillo rotundus sp. nov. This study represents the first fossil record of the family Detonidae, Olibrinidae, and “Stenoniscidae”. From a paleoenvironmental reconstruction perspective, the oniscidean fauna presented here supports a particularly wet paleoenvironment, under brackish water influence, similar to an estuary.

The greatest hits of all time: the histories of dominant genera in the fossil record

Paleobiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy E. Plotnick ◽  
Peter Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
Occurrence Data

AbstractCertain taxa are noticeably common within collections, widely distributed, and frequently long-lived. We have examined these dominant genera as compared with rarer genera, with a focus on their temporal histories. Using occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, we determined which genera belonging to six target groups ranked among the most common within each of 49 temporal bins based on occurrences. The turnover among these dominant taxa from bin to bin was then determined for each of these groups, and all six groups when pooled. Although dominant genera are only a small fraction of all genera, the patterns of turnover mimic those seen in much larger compilations of total biodiversity. We also found that differences in patterns of turnover at the top ranks among the higher taxa reflect previously documented comparison of overall turnover among these classes. Both dominant and nondominant genera exhibit, on average, symmetrical patterns of rise and fall between first and last appearances. Dominant genera rarely begin at high ranks, but nevertheless tend to be more common when they first appear than nondominant genera. Moreover, dominant genera rarely are in the top 20 when they last appear, but still typically occupy more localities than nondominant genera occupy in their last interval. The mechanism(s) that produce dominant genera remain unclear. Nearly half of dominant genera are the type genus of a family or subfamily. This is consistent with a simple model of morphological and phylogenetic diversification and sampling.

The oldest Diptera (Insecta) from the Upper Buntsandstein (early Middle Triassic) of Europe

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5067 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
ELENA D. LUKASHEVICH
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Insect Fauna ◽  
The Family ◽  
Lower Franconia ◽  
Grès À Voltzia ◽  
Early Middle Triassic

The fossil record of Triassic Diptera is still poor, with the oldest dipteran assemblage described from the Upper Buntsandstein of the ‘Grès à Voltzia’ Formation (early Anisian, France). From the stratigraphically closest insect fauna of the Röt Formation of Lower Franconia, Germany, the first Diptera, Bashkonia franconica gen. et sp. nov. is described based on an isolated wing. The new genus is assigned to the family Nadipteridae, bridging the gap between two other genera included.  

The recently proposed odonatan ‘suborder’ Cephalozygoptera: fact or fiction

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
ANDRÉ NEL ◽  
DARAN ZHENG
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Burmese Amber ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Family

The new ‘suborder’ Cephalozygoptera was recently proposed for three fossil families of damselfly-like Odonata, on the basis of three characters of the head. Here we show, thanks to counter-examples of the presence of these characters in compression fossils of genuine Zygoptera, that these ‘characters’ do not exist in reality but are due to deformations and compression of the heads, a very frequent phenomenon in the fossil record of the whole superorder Odonatoptera. Furthermore, these alleged characters would have to have been regarded as symplesiomorphies, insufficient to support a new clade. Consequently, we consider the Cephalozygoptera as unfounded, to be rejected in the current state of knowledge. A new phylogenetic analysis of the whole clade Panodonata would be welcome. We also discuss the position of some previously described fossils: the Paleocene genus Valerea is restored in the Epallagidae (Euphaeidae), and the two Burmese amber genera Electrodysagrion and Palaeodysagrion are restored in the family Dysagrionidae.

First fossil record of a nymph (Ephemeroptera, Teloganellidae) from the Indian subcontinent

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4838 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
PRIYA AGNIHOTRI ◽  
KAJAL CHANDRA ◽  
ANUMEHA SHUKLA ◽  
HUKAM SINGH ◽  
RAKESH C. MEHROTRA
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Early Eocene ◽  
Lignite Mine ◽  
Modern Species ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mayfly Nymph ◽  
Modern Genus ◽  
First Time ◽  
A New Species

A fossil of a mayfly nymph that shows similarities with the modern genus Teloganella Ulmer, 1939 of the family Teloganellidae is recorded for the first time from the Indian subcontinent. It is systematically described from the Gurha lignite mine of Bikaner, Rajasthan which belongs to the Palana Formation (late Paleocene-early Eocene). As assignment of the fossil to a modern species of Teloganella is difficult due to indistinguishable location of gills in the impression, a new species, Teloganella gurhaensis Agnihotri et al., sp. nov. is instituted to include this fossil naiad resembling the extant Teloganella. 

scholarly journals Fossil-calibrated molecular phylogeny of atlantid heteropods (Gastropoda, Pterotracheoidea)

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Wall-Palmer ◽  
Arie W. Janssen ◽  
Erica Goetze ◽  
Le Qin Choo ◽  
Lisette Mekkes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Family ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Maximum Likelihood Phylogeny ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
Ribosomal Rrna

Abstract Background The aragonite shelled, planktonic gastropod family Atlantidae (shelled heteropods) is likely to be one of the first groups to be impacted by imminent ocean changes, including ocean warming and ocean acidification. With a fossil record spanning at least 100 Ma, atlantids have experienced and survived global-scale ocean changes and extinction events in the past. However, the diversification patterns and tempo of evolution in this family are largely unknown. Results Based on a concatenated maximum likelihood phylogeny of three genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial DNA, 28S and 18S ribosomal rRNA) we show that the three extant genera of the family Atlantidae, Atlanta, Protatlanta and Oxygyrus, form monophyletic groups. The genus Atlanta is split into two groups, one exhibiting smaller, well ornamented shells, and the other having larger, less ornamented shells. The fossil record, in combination with a fossil-calibrated phylogeny, suggests that large scale atlantid extinction was accompanied by considerable and rapid diversification over the last 25 Ma, potentially driven by vicariance events. Conclusions Now confronted with a rapidly changing modern ocean, the ability of atlantids to survive past global change crises gives some optimism that they may be able to persist through the Anthropocene.

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