Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-l8wb7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-26T19:18:39.225Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Testing for evolutionary equilibria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Richard Cowen  and
William L. Stockton
Richard Cowen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Institute of Ecology, University of California; Davis, California 95616
William L. Stockton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Institute of Ecology, University of California; Davis, California 95616
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mark and Flessa (1977) have argued that the evolutionary equilibrium hypothesis requires that there should be significant correlation between generic origins and extinctions, and they presented data on Phanerozoic brachiopods and Cenozoic mammals. Their data are re-examined and the correlations are found not to support their version of the evolutionary equilibrium hypothesis. We argue that the equilibrium hypothesis may not be falsifiable using paleontological data.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Spring 1978 , pp. 195 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Literature Cited

Bretsky, P. W. and Bretsky, S. S. 1976. The maintenance of evolutionary equilibrium in Late Ordovician benthic marine invertebrate faunas. Lethaia. 9:223–233.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H. and Wilson, E. O. 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. 203 pp. Princeton Univ. Press; Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Mark, G. A. and Flessa, K. W. 1977. A test for evolutionary equilibria: Phanerozoic brachiopods and Cenozoic mammals. Paleobiology. 3:17–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudwick, M. J. S. 1970. Living and Fossil Brachiopods. 199 pp. Hutchinson Univ. Library; London.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1965. Stratigraphic Distribution. Pp. H237–H250. In: Moore, R. C., ed. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part H, Brachiopoda. Univ. Kans. Press and Geol. Soc. Am.; Lawrence, Kansas.Google Scholar