Biotic invasions in the fossil record provide natural experiments for testing hypotheses of niche stability, speciation, and the assembly and diversity of regional biotas. We compare ecological parameters (preferred environment, occupancy, median abundance, rank abundance) of genera shared between faunal provinces during the Richmondian Invasion in the Late Ordovician on the Laurentian continent. Genera that spread from one faunal province to the other during the invasion (invading shared genera) have high Spearman rank correlations (>0.5) in three of four ecological parameters, suggesting a high level of niche stability among invaders. Genera that existed in both regions prior to and following the invasion (noninvading shared genera) have low correlations (<0.3) and suggest niche shift between lineages that diverged at least 8 Myr earlier. Niche shift did not accumulate gradually over this time interval but appears to have occurred in a pulse associated with the onset of the Taconic orogeny and the switch from warm-water to cool-water carbonates in southern Laurentia.

The end-Permian mass extinction, the largest extinction of the Phanerozoic, led to a severe reduction in both taxonomic richness and ecological complexity of marine communities, eventually culminating in a dramatic ecological restructuring of communities. During the Early Triassic recovery interval, disaster taxa proliferated and numerically dominated many marine benthic invertebrate assemblages. These disaster taxa include the bivalve genera Claraia, Unionites, Eumorphotis, and Promyalina, and the inarticulate brachiopod Lingularia. The exact nature and extent of their dominance remains uncertain. Here, a quantitative analysis of the dominance of these taxa within the fossil communities of Panthalassa and Tethys benthic realms is undertaken for the stages of the Early Triassic to examine temporal and regional changes in disaster-taxon dominance as recovery progresses. Community dominance and disaster-taxon abundance is markedly different between Panthalassic and Tethyan communities. In Panthalassa, community evenness is low in the Induan stage but increases significantly in the Smithian and Spathian. This is coincident with a significant decrease in the relative abundance and occurrence frequency of the disaster taxa, most notably of the low-oxygen-affinity taxa Claraia and Lingularia. While the disaster taxa are present in post-Induan assemblages, other taxa, including two articulate brachiopod genera, outrank the disaster taxa in relative abundance. In the Tethys, assemblages are generally more even than contemporaneous Panthalassic assemblages. We observe an averaged trend toward more even communities with fewer disaster taxa in both Panthalassic and Tethyan assemblages over time.

Changes in the physical environment are major drivers of evolutionary change, either through direct effects on the distribution and abundance of species or more subtle shifts in the outcome of biological interactions. To investigate this phenomenon, we built a fossil data set of drilling gastropod predation on bivalve prey for the last 11 Myr to determine how the regional collapse in Caribbean upwelling and planktonic productivity affected predator–prey interactions. Contrary to theoretical expectations, predation increased nearly twofold after productivity declined, while the ratio of drilling predators to prey remained unchanged. This increase reflects a gradual, several-fold increase in the extent of shallow-water coral reefs and seagrass meadows in response to the drop in productivity that extended over several million years. Drilling predation is uniformly higher in biogenic habitats than in soft sediments. Thus, changes in predation intensity were driven by a shift in dominant habitats rather than a direct effect of decreased productivity. Most previous analyses of predation through time have not accounted for variations in environmental conditions, raising questions about the patterns observed. More fundamentally, however, the consequences of large-scale environmental perturbations may not be instantaneous, especially when changes in habitat and other aspects of local environmental conditions cause cascading series of effects.

Although provinces are widely used to delimit large-scale variations in biotic composition, it is unknown to what extent such variations simply reflect large-scale gradients, much as has been shown at smaller scales for communities. We examine here whether four previously described Middle and Late Ordovician provinces on Laurentia are best described as distinct provinces or as biotic gradients through a combination of the Paleobiology Database and new field data. Both data sets indicate considerable overlap in faunal composition, with spatial patterns in Jaccard similarity, quantified Jaccard similarity, and nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination structure that correspond to variations in substrate type, specifically from carbonate-dominated strata in western Laurentia to mixed carbonate–siliciclastic strata in the midcontinent to siliciclastic-dominated rocks in easternmost Laurentia. Because sampling was limited to shallow-subtidal settings, this gradient cannot be attributed to variations in water depth. Likewise, geographic distance accounts for only a quarter of the variation in faunal composition. This cross-continent faunal gradient increases in strength into the early Late Ordovician, and appears to represent increased siliciclastic influx into eastern Laurentia during the Taconic orogeny. These results raise the question of whether biogeographic provinces may be in general better interpreted and analyzed as biotic gradients rather than as discrete entities.

Recent morphometric analysis revealed a juvenile (meraspid) axial growth gradient in the trunk of the ~429 Myr old trilobite Aulacopleura koninckii that resulted from growth control based on positional specification, as is common among extant organisms. Here we explore axial growth gradients in the more anterior body region, the cephalon, and in the cephalon and trunk during subsequent development in the holaspid period. We detected an axial growth gradient in the cephalon in the meraspid period, flatter and opposite in direction to that of the trunk, which also persisted during the holaspid period. We also found an holaspid trunk growth gradient, with a different distribution of growth rates among segments than that of the meraspid period. These newly observed growth gradients are compatible with the mechanism of growth control inferred for the meraspid trunk. Thus, the same kind of growth control may have operated in both body regions and during the whole ontogeny of A. koninckii. This study, along with others on the same species that preceded it, show that morphometric analysis of appropriate data sets can address questions of high interest for evolutionary developmental biology using data from fossils. By revealing developmental features at deep nodes of the phylogenetic tree, these studies will elucidate both how developmental processes evolved and how they themselves affected the evolution of organismal body patterning.

One of the major evolutionary transitions of the mammaliaform lineage was the origin of a typically mammalian pattern of growth. This is characterized by rapid juvenile growth followed by abrupt cessation of growth at adult size and may be linked with other important mammaliaform apomorphies of dental replacement and morphology. Investigation of growth patterns in the tritylodontid cynodont Oligokyphus and the basal mammaliaform Morganucodon provides insight into this crucial transition. We collected mandibular depth measurements from large samples of Morganucodon and Oligokyphus and constructed distributions of mandibular depth versus frequency for each species. These were compared with distributions from species from three different growth classes of extant amniote: testudines + crocodilians, mammals + birds, and lepidosaurs. Discriminant function analysis was used to differentiate between known growth classes by using different combinations of three measures of mandibular depth distribution shape (skew, kurtosis, and coefficient of variation) as proxies for different juvenile and adult growth patterns. Classification of the fossil species showed that Morganucodon closely resembled extant placental mammals in having rapid juvenile growth followed by truncated, determinate adult growth. Oligokyphus showed intermediate growth patterns, with more extended adult growth patterns than Morganucodon and slightly slower juvenile growth. This suggests a gradual evolution of mammalian growth patterns across the cynodont to mammaliaform transition, possibly with the origin of rapid juvenile growth preceding that of truncated, determinate adult growth. In turn, acquisition of both these aspects of mammalian growth was likely necessary for the evolution of diphyodont tooth replacement in the mammaliaform lineage.

Most of the mammalian diversity is known only from fossils, and only a few of these fossils are well preserved or abundant. This undersampling poses serious problems for understanding mammalian phenotypic evolution under a quantitative genetics framework, since this framework requires estimation of a group’s additive genetic variance–covariance matrix (G matrix), which is impossible, and estimating a phenotypic variance–covariance matrix (P matrix) requires larger sample sizes than what is often available for extinct species. One alternative is to use G or P matrices from extant taxa as surrogates for the extinct ones. Although there are reasons to believe this approach is usually safe, it has not been fully explored. By thoroughly determining the extant and some extinct Xenarthra (Mammalia) cranium P matrices, this study aims to explore the feasibility of using extant G or P matrices as surrogates for the extinct ones and to provide guidelines regarding the reliability of this strategy and the necessary sample sizes. Variance–covariance and correlation P matrices for 35 cranium traits from 16 xenarthran genera (12 extant and 4 extinct) were estimated and compared between genera. Results show xenarthran P-matrix structures are usually very similar if sample sizes are reasonable. This study and others developed with extant therian mammals suggest, in general, that using extant G or P matrices as an approximation to extinct ones is a valid approach. Nevertheless, the accuracy of this approach depends on sample size, selected traits, and the type of matrix being considered.

Carnivore-rich fossil sites are uncommon in the fossil record and, accordingly, provide valuable opportunities to study predators from vantages that are rarely applied to ancient faunas. Through stable isotopes of carbon and a Bayesian mixing model, we analyze time-successive (nearly contemporaneous), late Miocene carnivoran populations from two fossil sites (Batallones-1 and Batallones-3) from central Spain. Stable isotopes of carbon in tooth enamel provide a reliable and direct methodology to track ancient diets. These two carnivoran-dominated fossil sites display differences in the composition and abundance of the carnivoran species, with some species present at both sites and some present only at one site. This disparity has been interpreted as the consequence of habitat differences between Batallones-1, the older site, and Batallones-3, the younger site. However, carbon isotope values of carnivore and herbivore tooth enamel suggest a common habitat of C3 woodland originally present at both sites. The differences in the carnivoran faunas rather may be the consequence of the dynamics of species entrance and exit from the Madrid Basin during the time elapsed between Batallones-1 and Batallones-3 and changes in population densities due to biotic factors. We infer higher levels of interspecific competition in Batallones-3 than in Batallones-1 because of the larger number of similar-sized, sympatric predators; the clear overlap in their δ13C values (except for the amphicyonid Magericyon anceps); and similarity of their preferred prey: the hipparionine horses. Finally, carbon stable isotopic composition of Indarctos arctoides teeth implies that this ursid was a carnivorous omnivore rather than a herbivorous omnivore. This work demonstrates the insights that stable isotopes can provide in characterizing the feeding ecology and trophic interactions of ancient carnivoran taxa.

Thylacoleo carnifex, or the “pouched lion” (Mammalia: Marsupialia: Diprotodontia: Thylacoleonidae), was a carnivorous marsupial that inhabited Australia during the Pleistocene. Although all present-day researchers agree that Thylacoleo had a hypercarnivorous diet, the way in which it killed its prey remains uncertain. Here we use geometric morphometrics to capture the shape of the elbow joint (i.e., the anterior articular surface of the distal humerus) in a wide sample of extant mammals of known behavior to determine how elbow anatomy reflects forearm use. We then employ this information to investigate the predatory behavior of Thylacoleo. A principal components analysis indicates that Thylacoleo is the only carnivorous mammal to cluster with extant taxa that have an extreme degree of forearm maneuverability, such as primates and arboreal xenarthrans (pilosans). A canonical variates analysis confirms that Thylacoleo had forearm maneuverability intermediate between wombats (terrestrial) and arboreal mammals and a much greater degree of maneuverability than any living carnivoran placental. A linear discriminant analysis computed to separate the elbow morphology of arboreal mammals from terrestrial ones shows that Thylacoleo was primarily terrestrial but with some climbing abilities. We infer from our results that Thylacoleo used its forelimbs for grasping or manipulating prey to a much higher degree than its supposed extant placental counterpart, the African lion (Panthera leo). The use of the large and retractable claw on the semiopposable thumb of Thylacoleo for potentially slashing and disemboweling prey is discussed in the light of this new information.

Large body size in Keen’s mouse, Peromyscus keeni, has been regarded as a relictual character that developed in times of geographic separation from P. maniculatus. However, body-size changes in Keen’s mouse have not been studied in detail. To address this problem the present paper compares the size of ancient and modern Peromyscus specimens from Vancouver Island. Results indicate that Late Pleistocene Peromyscus from Arch-2 Cave and early Holocene Peromyscus from Pellucidar Cave are significantly larger than those of modern P. maniculatus and P. keeni. Morphology and linear discriminant analyses support tentative assignment of several ancient specimens to P. keeni. Radiocarbon age estimates of 11,960±45 BP (14,004–13,637 cal BP) on a small mammal bone and 12,370±35 BP (14,695–14,148 cal BP) on Ursus arctos from Arch-2 Cave place these faunas on the island as relative sea level fell from a postglacial highstand, suggesting a local source for faunas with limited over-water dispersal capacities. Results of this study are consistent with insular relictual gigantism in Keen’s mouse, although some modification of the original hypothesis is needed to explain the smaller size of modern than ancient mice.