Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T06:12:49.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Pace of Taxonomic Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

Norman L. Gilinsky*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061

Extract

G. Udny Yule (1924) was perhaps the first to examine the subject of rates of taxonomic evolution mathematically, but George Gaylord Simpson was the first to examine the subject from within the confines of the so-called Modern Synthesis of Biology (Simpson, 1944). In that sense, therefore, Simpson's can be regarded as the first modern study of rates of taxonomic evolution. Although he is almost universally regarded as the catalyst behind the current interest in taxonomic evolutionary rates, it is a remarkable fact that Simpson's aims were almost entirely different from those of current workers. In a very important sense, Simpson's taxonomic rates of evolution were not taxonomic at all, but were morphological, or even more to the point, genetic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 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

Bailey, N.T.J. 1964. The Elements of Stochastic Processes. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 249 p.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1985. Unfinished Synthesis. Oxford University Press, New York, 237 p.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1989. Macroevolutionary Dynamics: Species, Niches, and Adaptive Peaks. McGraw-Hill, New York, 226 p.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., and Gould, S.J. 1972. Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism, p. 82115. In Schopf, T.J.M. (ed.), Models in Paleobiology. Freeman, Cooper & Co., San Francisco.Google Scholar
Foin, T.C., Valentine, J.W., and Ayala, F.J. 1975. Extinction of taxa and Van Valen's Law. Nature, 257:514515.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 1988. Survivorship analysis of Cambrian and Ordovician trilobites. Paleobiology, 14:258271.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L. 1988. Survivorship in the Bivalvia: comparing living and extinct genera and families. Paleobiology, 14:370386.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L. 1990. Estimating probabilities of origination and extinction. Abstracts of the Fourth International Congress on Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, p. 198.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L. 1991. Cross sections through evolutionary trees: theory and applications. Systematic Zoology, 40:1932.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L., and Bambach, R.K. 1986. The evolutionary bootstrap: a new approach to the study of taxonomic diversity. Paleobiology, 12:251268.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L., and Bambach, R.K. 1987. Asymmetrical patterns of origination and extinction in higher taxa. Paleobiology, 13:427445.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N.L., and Good, I.J. 1991. Probabilities of origination, persistence, and extinction of families of marine invertebrate life. Paleobiology, In press.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. 1982. The meaning of punctuated equilibrium and its role in validating a hierarchical approach to evolution, p. 83104. In Milkman, R. (ed.), Perspectives on Evolution. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Harland, W.B., Armstrong, R.L., Cox, A.V., Craig, L.E., Smith, A.G., and Smith, D.G. 1989. A Geologic Time Scale 1989. Cambridge Univesity Press, Cambridge, 263 p.Google Scholar
Harper, C.W. Jr. 1975. Standing diversity of fossil groups in successive intervals of geologic time: a new measure. Journal of Paleontology, 49:752757.Google Scholar
Hoffman, A., and Ghiold, J. 1985. Randomness in the pattern of “mass extinctions” and “waves of origination.” Geological Magazine, 122:14.Google Scholar
Levinton, J.S., and Farris, J.S. 1987. On the estimation of taxonomic longevity from Lyellian curves. Paleobiology, 13:479483.Google Scholar
Marshall, C.M. 1990. Confidence intervals on stratigraphic ranges. Paleobiology, 16:110.Google Scholar
McKinney, M.L. 1986. Biostratigraphic gap analysis. Geology, 14:3638.Google Scholar
Newell, N.D. 1967. Revolutions in the history of life. Geological Society of America Special Paper, 89:6391.Google Scholar
Pease, C.M. 1987. Lyellian curves and mean taxonomic durations. Paleobiology, 13:484487.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M. 1975. Van Valen's Law. Paleobiology, 1:8296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D.M. 1977. Removing sampling biases from taxonomic diversity data. Journal of Paleontology, 51 (Supplement to No. 2, Pt. III):21.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M. 1978. Cohort analysis of generic survivorship. Paleobiology, 4:115.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M. 1985. Mathematical models of cladogenesis. Paleobiology, 11:4252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D.M. 1986. Biological extinction in Earth history. Science, 231:15281533.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M., and Boyajian, G.E. 1988. Patterns of generic extinction in the fossil record. Paleobiology, 14:109125.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M., and Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1982. Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record. Science, 215:15011503.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M., and Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1984. Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 81:833836.Google Scholar
Raup, D.M., and Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1986. Periodic extinction of families and genera. Science, 231:833836.Google Scholar
Salthe, S.N. 1975. Some comments on Van Valen's law of extinction. Paleobiology, 1:356358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1975. Stratigraphic biases in the analysis of taxonomic survivorship. Paleobiology, 1:343355.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1978. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity. I. Analysis of marine orders. Paleobiology, 4:223251.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1979. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity. II. Early Phanerozoic families and multiple equilibria. Paleobiology, 5:222251.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1982. A compendium of fossil marine families. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions to Biology and Geology, 51:1125.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1984. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity. III. Post-Paleozoic families and mass extinctions. Paleobiology, 10:246267.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 1987. Reply to Patterson and Smith 1987. Nature, 330:251252.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr., and Raup, D.M. 1986. Periodicity in marine extinction events, p. 336. In Elliott, D.K. (ed.), Dynamics of Extinction. John Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. Jr., Bambach, R.K., Raup, D.M., and Valentine, J.W. 1981. Phanerozoic marine diversity and the fossil record. Nature, 293:435437.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G. 1944. Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Columbia University Press, New York, 237 p.Google Scholar
Stanley, S.M. 1975. A theory of evolution above the species level. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 72:646650.Google Scholar
Stanley, S.M. 1979. Macroevolution: Pattern and Process. W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, 332 p.Google Scholar
Stanley, S.M. 1985. Rates of evolution. Paleobiology, 11:1326.Google Scholar
Stanley, S.M. 1986. Anatomy of a regional mass extinction: Plio-Pleistocene decimation of the western Atlantic bivalve fauna. Palaios, 1:1736.Google Scholar
Stanley, S.M., Addicot, W.O., and Chinzei, K. 1980. Lyellian curves in paleontology: Possibilities and limitations. Geology, 8:422426.Google Scholar
Strauss, D., and Sadler, P.M. 1989. Classical confidence intervals and Bayesian probability estimates for ends of local taxon ranges. Mathematical Geology, 21:411427.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1973. A new evolutionary law. Evolutionary Theory, 1:130.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1975. Reply to Foin, Valentine, and Ayala, 1975. Nature, 257:515516.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1976. The Red Queen lives. Nature, 260:575.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1979. Taxonomic survivorship curves. Evolutionary Theory, 4:129142.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1984. A resetting of Phanerozoic community evolution. Nature, 307:5052.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1985. How constant is extinction? Evolutionary Theory, 7:93106.Google Scholar
Vrba, E., and Eldredge, N. 1984. Individuals, hierarchies, and processes: towards a more complete evolutionary theory. Paleobiology, 10:146171.Google Scholar
Yule, G.U. 1924. A mathematical theory of evolution, based on the conclusions of Dr. J.C. Willis, F.R.S. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B), 213:2187.Google Scholar