Shaking up evolutionary patterns

Perhaps more widely fluctuating environments (on geological rather than ecological timescales) maintain their own kind of stability within wide reflecting boundaries, and selection soon favours lineages with "all-purpose' hard-part morphologies that are relatively inert to each environment...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1990-06, Vol.345 (6278), p.772-772
Main Author: SHELDON, PETER R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Evolution
Geology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
scientific-correspondence
Shaking
Shallow water
Speciation
Temperate zones
Tropical environments
Variation
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Summary:Perhaps more widely fluctuating environments (on geological rather than ecological timescales) maintain their own kind of stability within wide reflecting boundaries, and selection soon favours lineages with "all-purpose' hard-part morphologies that are relatively inert to each environmental twist and turn (see figure). In conditions that produce complex sedimentary sequences (with many lithological changes and hiatuses) the ability to track preferred environments would be a prime selection pressure, especially on benthic lineages. Irrespective of probable differences in speciation rates, the model predicts a tendency for more continuous phyletic evolution offshore, and in the tropics generally, and for more stasis in shallow waters and temperate zones.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/345772a0