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Science 11 April 1986:
Vol. 232. no. 4747, pp. 230 - 232
DOI: 10.1126/science.232.4747.230
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Articles

Ontogeny in Animal Colonies: A Persistent Trend in the Bryozoan Fossil Record

SCOTT LIDGARD 1

1 Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605.

The principal modes of zooid and colony growth in encrusting cheilostome bryozoans have undergone a major evolutionary transition during the last 100 million years. Comparisons of species within successive North American fossil faunas reveal a persistent trend in which one mode of growth is gradually supplanted by another. Ecological evidence from living faunas and the polyphyletic nature of this trend suggest that the transition has adaptive significance.

Submitted on August 5, 1985
Accepted on November 25, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Testing for bias in the evolution of coloniality: a demonstration in cyclostome bryozoans.
(2002)
Paleobiology 28, 308-327
The hierarchical structure of organisms: a scale and documentation of a trend in the maximum.
(2001)
Paleobiology 27, 405-423
Competitive displacement among post-Paleozoic cyclostome and cheilostome bryozoans.
(2000)
Paleobiology 26, 7-18


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