Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 28 June 1991:
Vol. 252. no. 5014, pp. 1831 - 1833
DOI: 10.1126/science.252.5014.1831
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Environmental Patterns in the Origins of Higher Taxa: The Post-Paleozoic Fossil Record

DAVID JABLONSKI 1 and DAVID J. BOTTJER 2

1 Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
2 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740

Of the 26 well-preserved orders of benthic marine invertebrates that have originated since the beginning of the Mesozoic, 20 first appear in onshore environments. This distribution differs significantly from that shown by well-preserved genera and families, and by the 16 poorly preserved orders. These discordances suggest that the pattern of preferential onshore origination is not an artifact of preservation or collection and that the origin of higher taxa cannot be regarded as a simple extrapolation of rates and patterns at lower levels. The onshore environment fosters production or enhances survivorship of species that initiate lineages tending to accumulate suites of derived characters and that thus are ultimately afforded high taxonomic rank.

Submitted on February 7, 1991
Accepted on April 5, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Marine diversity through the Phanerozoic: problems and prospects.
A. B. SMITH (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 731-745
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Environmental determinants of marine benthic biodiversity dynamics through Triassic Jurassic time.
W. Kiessling and M. Aberhan (2007)
Paleobiology 33, 414-434
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Environmental and historical constraints on global patterns of amphibian richness.
L. B Buckley and W. Jetz (2007)
Proc R Soc B 274, 1167-1173
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The problem with the Paleozoic.
S. E. Peters (2007)
Paleobiology 33, 165-181
   Full Text »    PDF »
Cold-seep mollusks are older than the general marine mollusk fauna..
S. Kiel and C. T. S. Little (2006)
Science 313, 1429-1431
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Diversification of atypical Paleozoic echinoderms: a quantitative survey of patterns of stylophoran disparity, diversity, and geography.
B. Lefebvre, G. J. Eble, N. Navarro, and B. David (2006)
Paleobiology 32, 483-510
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Random walks in the history of life.
J. L. Cornette and B. S. Lieberman (2004)
PNAS 101, 187-191
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Survival without recovery after mass extinctions.
D. Jablonski (2002)
PNAS 99, 8139-8144
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Palaeobiogeography and the Ordovician and Mesozoic-Cenozoic biotic radiations.
A. W. Owen and J. A. Crame (2002)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 194, 1-11
   Abstract »    PDF »
Global Climate Change and the Origin of Modern Benthic Communities in Antarctica.
R. B. Aronson and D. B. Blake (2001)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 41, 27-39
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Origination and extinction components of taxonomic diversity: Paleozoic and post-Paleozoic dynamics.
(2000)
Paleobiology 26, 578-605
Contrasting evolutionary flexibility in sister groups: disparity and diversity in Mesozoic atelostomate echinoids.
(2000)
Paleobiology 26, 56-79
Oxygen and evolutionary patterns in the sea: Onshore/offshore trends and recent recruitment of deep-sea faunas.
D. K. Jacobs and D. R. Lindberg (1998)
PNAS 95, 9396-9401
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comparative evolutionary palaeoecology: assessing the changing ecology of the past.
D. J. Bottjer, J. K. Schubert, and M. L. Droser (1996)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 102, 1-13
   Abstract »    PDF »
Palaeoecological models, non-uniformitarianism, and tracking the changing ecology of the past.
D. J. Bottjer, K. A. Campbell, J. K. Schubert, and M. L. Droser (1995)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 83, 7-26
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)