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Related Experiment Videos

Lineages with long durations are old and morphologically average: an analysis using multiple datasets.

Lee Hsiang Liow1

  • 1Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, 5734 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. l.h.liow@bio.uio.no

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|April 19, 2007
PubMed
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Long-lived lineages in the fossil record are often morphologically average, not special. This study analyzed over 60 animal datasets, finding persistent species tend to have typical traits, challenging ideas of unique survival adaptations.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Paleontology
  • Phylogenetics

Background:

  • Lineage persistence is a key concept in evolutionary biology, alongside evolutionary change.
  • Understanding why some lineages persist longer than others, without extinction or speciation, is crucial.
  • The role of ecological or morphological traits in long-term lineage survival remains an open question.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the hypothesis that long-duration lineages possess morphologies closer to the average than expected by chance.
  • To investigate if persistent lineages exhibit distinctive traits that correlate with their geologic duration.
  • To evaluate this hypothesis for both individual lineages and groups of lineages.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of over 60 published animal datasets with substantial fossil records.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Evaluation of morphological distance for long-duration lineages compared to shorter-duration relatives.
  • Statistical comparison using rarified samples to assess deviations from chance expectations.

    • Main Results:

    • The majority of datasets showed "negative group morpho-duration distributions," where longer-duration lineages were morphologically closer to the group average.
    • Higher taxonomic ranks (e.g., families, orders) more frequently exhibited "positive morpho-duration distributions" (greater morphological distance).
    • Individual long-duration lineages predominantly showed "null individual morpho-duration distributions," indicating average morphology.

    Conclusions:

    • Persistent lineages, both individually and as groups, are generally morphologically average, contrary to the notion of them being uniquely adapted.
    • Long-duration lineages often emerge early in a group's evolutionary history.
    • These findings have implications for understanding diversification patterns and the concept of niche preemption in evolutionary history.