Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 36

  • Get access
    Add to cart USD35.00
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    Log in Register

A study of stasis and change in two species lineages from the Middle Devonian of New York state

  • Bruce S. Lieberman (a1), Carlton E. Brett (a2) and Niles Eldredge (a3)

Abstract

More than 5000 measurements were taken on over 1000 specimens of two species of brachiopods, Mediospirifer audaculus and Athyris spiriferoides, from the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York state. Statistical analyses were performed on these data, with specimens partitioned by their occurrence in one of many paleoenvironments and stratigraphic horizons. Neither species showed substantial morphological departures between first appearance and extinction (the range of the Hamilton Group, roughly 5 m.y.). However, oscillations in morphology were discovered in both taxa.

For the two species we studied, groups of organisms occurring in a single paleoenvironment undergo moderate morphological change through time; however, the net sum of changes through time in all paleoenvironments in which these species occur is essentially zero. Therefore, stasis may be partly a property of the organization of species into different environmental populations. Different “environmental populations” may evolve, but they will typically do so in several different “directions,” generally producing no net change. The difference between the morphology of species in different environments over the whole interval of the Hamilton Group is also nil, thereby ruling out any major role that ecophenotypic effects could play in the patterns recognized herein.

Copyright

COPYRIGHT: © The Paleontological Society 

References

Hide All
Bookstein, F. L. 1987. Random walk and the existence of evolutionary rates. Paleobiology 13:446–464.
Brett, C. 1986a. Dynamic stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part 1. New York State Museum Bulletin 457.
Brett, C. E. 1986b. The Middle Devonian Hamilton group of New York: an overview. Pp. 1–4in Brett, 1986a.
Brett, C. E., and Baird, G. C. 1986. Symmetrical and upward shallowing cycles in the Middle Devonian of New York State and their implications for the punctuated aggradational cycle hypothesis. Paleoceanography 1:431–445.
Brett, C. E., Speyer, S. E., and Baird, G. C. 1986. Storm-generated sedimentary units: tempestite proximality and event stratification in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York. Pp. 129–156in Brett, 1986a.
Brett, C. E., Miller, K. B., and Baird, G. C. 1990. A temporal hierarchy of paleoecologic processes within a Middle Devonian epeiric sea. Pp. 178–209in Miller, W. III, ed. Paleocommunity temporal dynamics: the long-term development of multispecies assemblies. Paleontological Society Special Publication 5.
Brett, C. E., Dick, V. B., and Baird, G. C. 1991. Comparative taphonomy and paleoecology of Middle Devonian dark grey and black shale facies from western New York. Pp. 5–36in Landing, E. and Brett, C. E., eds. Dynamic stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State. New York State Museum Bulletin 469.
Cooper, G. A., Butts, C., Caster, K. E., Chadwick, G. H., Goldring, W., Kindle, E. M., Kirk, E., Merriam, C. W., Swartz, F. M., Warren, P. S., Warthin, A. S., and Willard, B. 1942. Correlation of the Devonian sedimentary formations of North America. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 53:1729–1794.
Eldredge, N. 1972. Systematics and evolution of Phacops rana (Green, 1832) and Phacops iowensis Delo, 1935 (Trilobita) from the Middle Devonian of North America. American Museum of Natural History Bulletin 147:45–114.
Eldredge, N. 1989. Macroevolutionary dynamics. McGraw Hill, New York.
Eldredge, N., and Cracraft, J. 1980. Phylogenetic patterns and the evolutionary process. Columbia University Press, New York.
Ettensohn, F. R. 1985. The Catskill Delta complex and the Acadian orogeny: a model. Pp. 39–50in Woodrow, D. L. and Sevon, W. D., eds. The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo.
Gould, S. J., and Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3:115–151.
Kent, D. V. 1985. Paleocontinental setting for the Catskill Delta. Pp. 9–14in Woodrow, D. L. and Sevon, W. D., eds. The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo.
Lande, R. 1986. The dynamics of peak shifts and the pattern of morphological evolution. Paleobiology 12:343–354.
Lieberman, B. S., Brett, C. E., and Eldredge, N.In press. Patterns and processes of stasis in two brachiopod species lineages in The Middle Devonian of New York State. American Museum of Natural History Novitates.
Miller, K. 1986. Depositional environments and sequences “Pleurodictyum Zone,” Ludlowville Formation of Western New York. Pp. 57–77in Brett, 1986a.
Miller, R. G. Jr. 1966. Simultaneous statistical inference. McGraw Hill, New York.
SAS Institute Inc. 1990. SAS user's guide. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, N.C.
Savarese, M., Gray, L. M., and Brett, C. E. 1986. Faunal and lithologic cyclicity in the centerfield member (Middle Devonian: Hamilton Group) of Western New York: a reinterpretation of depositional history. Pp. 32–56in Brett, 1986a.
Sheldon, P. 1993. Making sense of microevolutionary patterns. Pp. 19–31in Lees, D. R. and Edwards, D., eds. Evolutionary patterns and processes. Linnaean Society Symposium Volume 14.
Somers, K. M. 1989. Allometry, isometry and shape in principal components analysis. Systematic Zoology 38:169–172.
Soper, N. J., Strachan, R. A., Holdsworth, R. E., Gayer, R. A., and Greiling, R. O. 1992. Sinistral transpression and the Silurian closure of Iapetus. Journal of the Geological Society 149:871–880.
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Sundberg, P. 1989. Shape and size-constrained principal components analysis. Systematic Zoology 38:166–168.
Vogel, K., Golubic, S., and Brett, C. E. 1987. Endolith associations and their relation to facies distribution in the Middle Devonian of New York State, U.S.A. Lethaia 20:263–290.
Williamson, P. G. 1987. Selection or constraint? A proposal on the mechanism for stasis. Pp. 129–142in Campbell, K. S. W. and Day, M. F., eds. Rates of evolution. Allen and Unwin, London.
Wright, S. 1931. Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics 16:97–159.
  • Cited by 36

  • Get access
    Add to cart USD35.00
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    Log in Register

A study of stasis and change in two species lineages from the Middle Devonian of New York state

  • Bruce S. Lieberman (a1), Carlton E. Brett (a2) and Niles Eldredge (a3)

Metrics

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed