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Invention by evolution: Functional analysis in paleobiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Roy E. Plotnick  and
Tomasz K. Baumiller
Roy E. Plotnick
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 West Taylor, Chicago, Illinois 60607. E-mail: plotnick@uic.edu
Tomasz K. Baumiller
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079. E-mail: tomaszB@umich.edu
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Abstract

Functional analysis of fossils is and should remain a key component of paleobiological research. Despite recently expressed doubts, conceptual and methodological developments over the past 25 years indicate that robust and testable claims about function can be produced. Functional statements can be made in at least three different hierarchical contexts, corresponding to the degree of structural information available, the position in the phylogenetic hierarchy, and the degree of anatomical specificity. The paradigm approach, which dominated thinking about function in the 1960s and 1970s, has been supplanted with a methodology based on biomechanics. Paleobiomechanics does not assume optimality in organismal design, but determines whether structures were capable of carrying out a given function. The paradigm approach can best be viewed as a way of generating, rather than testing, functional hypotheses. Hypotheses about function can also be developed and supported by well-corroborated phylogenetic arguments. Additional functional evidence can be derived from studies of trace fossils and of taphonomy. New computer techniques, including “Artificial Life” studies, have the potential for producing far more detailed ideas about function and mode of life than have been previously possible. Functional analysis remains the basis for studies of the history of adaptation. It is also an essential component of many paleoecological and paleoenvironmental studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 26 , Issue S4: Deep Time: Paleobiology's Perspective , 2000 , pp. 305 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by The Paleontological Society 

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