Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:16:17.296Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Phenotypic Change in the Fossil Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2019

Philip D. Gingerich
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Get access

Summary

Analysis of 34 paleontological studies in the fossil record yields no step rates quantifying change from one generation to the next, and thus cannot inform our understanding of generation-to-generation change by natural selection. However, temporal scaling of base rates found in fossil studies yields an LRI intercept and residuals consistent with the step rates found in selection experiments and field studies. Some 84% of the variance in evolutionary rates is determined by variance in interval lengths (rate denominators), meaning rates in the fossil record cannot be compared to rates in field studies without temporal scaling. Stasis predominates in the fossil record but change is evident too. Rapid change in a fossil study is change lying above a line fit to an empirical LRI distribution of base rates and their corresponding intervals: change lying above Y = −0.895 ∙ X − 0.615, where Y is log10 of the rate r and X is log10 of the corresponding interval i. When rate numerators are constrained to a range three orders of magnitude smaller than the range of their denominators, inverse scaling is inevitable.
Type
Chapter
Information
Rates of Evolution
A Quantitative Synthesis
, pp. 216 - 269
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×