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Clades reach highest morphological disparity early in their evolution

Hughes, Martin ; Gerber, Sylvain ; Wills, Matthew Albion

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2013-08, Vol.110 (34), p.13875-13879 [Periódico revisado por pares]

Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences

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  • Título:
    Clades reach highest morphological disparity early in their evolution
  • Autor: Hughes, Martin ; Gerber, Sylvain ; Wills, Matthew Albion
  • Assuntos: Anatomy, Comparative - statistics & numerical data ; Animals ; Biological and medical sciences ; Biological Evolution ; Biological Sciences ; Center of gravity ; Datasets ; Ecological genetics ; Evolution ; Evolutionary biology ; Extinction ; Fossils ; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology ; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution ; Geological time ; Mass extinction events ; Meta-analysis ; Models, Biological ; Morphology ; Paleobiology ; Paleoecology ; Phylogeny ; Physical Sciences ; Species extinction ; Species Specificity ; Taxa
  • É parte de: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2013-08, Vol.110 (34), p.13875-13879
  • Notas: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302642110
    ObjectType-Article-1
    SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
    ObjectType-Feature-2
    Edited by Steven M. Stanley, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and approved May 15, 2013 (received for review February 9, 2013)
    Author contributions: M.A.W. designed research; M.H., S.G., and M.A.W. performed research; M.H. and S.G. contributed new analytic tools; M.H., S.G., and M.A.W. analyzed data; and M.H., S.G., and M.A.W. wrote the paper.
  • Descrição: There are few putative macroevolutionary trends or rules that withstand scrutiny. Here, we test and verify the purported tendency for animal clades to reach their maximum morphological variety relatively early in their evolutionary histories (early high disparity). We present a meta-analysis of 98 metazoan clades radiating throughout the Phanerozoic. The disparity profiles of groups through time are summarized in terms of their center of gravity (CG), with values above and below 0.50 indicating top- and bottom-heaviness, respectively. Clades that terminate at one of the “big five” mass extinction events tend to have truncated trajectories, with a significantly top-heavy CG distribution overall. The remaining 63 clades show the opposite tendency, with a significantly bottom-heavy mean CG (relatively early high disparity). Resampling tests are used to identify groups with a CG significantly above or below 0.50; clades not terminating at a mass extinction are three times more likely to be significantly bottom-heavy than top-heavy. Overall, there is no clear temporal trend in disparity profile shapes from the Cambrian to the Recent, and early high disparity is the predominant pattern throughout the Phanerozoic. Our results do not allow us to distinguish between ecological and developmental explanations for this phenomenon. To the extent that ecology has a role, however, the paucity of bottom-heavy clades radiating in the immediate wake of mass extinctions suggests that early high disparity more probably results from the evolution of key apomorphies at the base of clades rather than from physical drivers or catastrophic ecospace clearing.
  • Editor: Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences
  • Idioma: Inglês

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