Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T21:33:09.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cosomys primus: a case for stasis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Deborah K. Lich
Deborah K. Lich*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Box 8007, Pocatello, Idaho 83209
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The first lower molar length, width, and posterior loop width were analyzed for ten Cosomys primus populations from horizontal deposits ranging in elevation from 3,000 to 3,295 feet. Sedimentation rates based on radiometric dates for two ashes and rates derived in previous studies suggest that these sediments span an interval of time that ranges from 45,000 to 164,000 years ago. Nonmetric data included the presence of enamel pits, prism folds, and crenulations; the number of triangles; and relative dentine tract heights. Coefficients of variation for the metrics were low, 4 to 7, and a one-way ANOVA revealed no significant differences between any of the populations. Changes in the mean phenotype were less than two phenotypic standard deviations and were not correlated with elevation. The presence of enamel pits, prism folds, and crenulations correlated only with less occlusal wear.

Thus, these microtine rodent populations appear to exhibit stasis over a time period of at least 45,000 and possibly as much as 164,000 years, unless the deposits accumulated more rapidly than previously estimated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , Summer 1990 , pp. 384 - 395
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.)

References

Literature Cited

Barnosky, A. D. 1987. Punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism. Pp. 109–147. In Genoways, H. H. (ed.), Current Mammalogy, Volume 1. Plenum Press; New York.Google Scholar
Bjork, P. R. 1970. The Carnivora of the Hagerman local fauna (late Pliocene) of southwestern Idaho. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60, pt. 7.Google Scholar
Chaline, J., and Laurin, B. 1986. Phyletic gradualism in a European Plio-Pleistocene Mimomys lineage (Arvicolidae, Rodentia). Paleobiology 12:203–216.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., and Gould, S. J. 1972. Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. Pp. 82–115. In Schopf, T. J. (ed.), Models in Paleobiology. Freeman; San Francisco.Google Scholar
Evernden, J. G., Savage, D. E., Curtis, G. H., and James, G. T. 1964. Potassium-argon dates and the Cenozoic mammalian chronology of North America. American Journal of Science 262:145–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, L. J. 1986. Species longevity, stasis, and stairsteps in rhizomyid rodents. Pp. 273–285. In Flanagan, K. M., and Lillegraven, J. A. (eds.), Vertebrates, Phylogeny, and Philosophy. University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, Special Paper 3.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1974. Stratigraphic record of early Eocene Hyopsodus and the geometry of mammalian phylogeny. Nature 248:107–109.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1976. Paleontology and phylogeny: patterns of evolution at the species level in early Tertiary mammals. American Journal of Science 276:1–28.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1979. Stratophenetic approach to phylogeny reconstruction in vertebrate paleontology. Pp. 41–77. In Cracraft, J., and Eldredge, N. (eds.), Phylogenetic Analysis and Paleontology. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1985. Species in the fossil record: concepts, trends, and transitions. Paleobiology 11:27–41.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1982. The meaning of punctuated equilibrium and its role in validating a hierarchical approach to macroevolution. Pp. 83–104. In Milkman, R. (ed.), Perspectives on Evolution. Sinauer; Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3:115–151.Google Scholar
Henry, J. L., and Clarkson, E. N. K. 1975. Enrollment and coaptations in some species of the Ordovician trilobite genus Placoparia. Fossils and Strata 4:87–95.Google Scholar
Hibbard, C. W. 1959. Late Cenozoic microtine rodents from Wyoming and Idaho. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences 44:3–40.Google Scholar
Hibbard, C. W., and Zakrzewski, R. J. 1967. Phyletic trends in the late Cenozoic microtine Ophiomys gen. nov., from Idaho. Contributions of the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 21:255–271.Google Scholar
Kellogg, D. E. 1975. The role of phyletic change in the evolution of Pseudocubus vema (Radiolaria). Paleobiology 1:359–370.Google Scholar
Kellogg, D. E., and Hays, J. D. 1975. Microevolutionary patterns in Late Cenozoic Radiolaria. Paleobiology 1:150–160.Google Scholar
Kowalski, K. 1970. Variation and speciation in fossil voles. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 26:149–161.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Lande, R. 1986. The dynamics of peak shifts and the pattern of morphological evolution. Paleobiology 12:343–354.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. 1988. Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. 1947. Systematics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Neville, C., Opdyke, N. D., Lindsay, E. H., and Johnson, N. M. 1979. Magnetic stratigraphy of Pliocene deposits of the Glenns Ferry Formation, Idaho, and its implications for North American mammalian biostratigraphy. American Journal of Science 279:502–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newell, N. D. 1956. Fossil populations. Pp. 63–82. In Sylvester-Bradley, P. C. (ed.), The Species Concept in Paleontology. Systematic Association Publication 2.Google Scholar
Ozawa, T. 1975. Evolution of Lepidolina multisepta (Permian for-aminifer) in East Asia. Memoirs of the Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Series D Geology 23:117–164.Google Scholar
Repenning, C. A. 1987. Biochronology of the microtine rodents of the United States. Pp. 236–268. In Woodburne, M. E. (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy. University of California Press; Berkeley, California.Google Scholar
Reyment, R. A. 1975. Analysis of a generic level transition in cretaceous ammonites. Evolution 28:665–676.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D., and Bown, T. M. 1986. Gradual evolution and species discrimination in the fossil record. Pp. 119–130. In Flanagan, K. M., and Lillegraven, J. A., (eds.), Vertebrates, Phylogeny, and Philosophy. University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, Special Paper 3.Google Scholar
Schefler, W. C. 1979. Statistics For the Biological Sciences. Addison-Wesley; Menlo Park, California.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G., Roe, A., and Lewontin, R. C. 1960. Quantitative Zoology. Harcourt, Brace and World; New York.Google Scholar
Van De Weerd, A. 1976. Rodent faunas of the Mio-Pliocene continental sediments of the Teruel-Alfambra Region, Spain. Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletins. Special Publication 2.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. W. 1932. Cosomys, a new genus of vole from the Pliocene of California. Journal of Mammalogy 13:150–154.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. W. 1933. A rodent fauna from later Cenozoic beds of southwestern Idaho. Contributions to Paleontology, Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication 440:117–135.Google Scholar
Zakrzewski, R. J. 1967. The primitive vole, Ogmodontomys, from the late Cenozoic of Kansas and Nebraska. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences 52:133–150.Google Scholar
Zakrzewski, R. J. 1969. The rodents from Hagerman local fauna, upper Pliocene of Idaho. Contributions of the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 23:1–36.Google Scholar
Zakrzewski, R. J. 1984. New Arvicolines (Mammalia: Rodentia) from the Blancan of Kansas and Nebraska. Pp. 200–217. In Genoways, H. H., and Dawson, M. R. (eds.), Contributions to Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 8.Google Scholar