Morphological Evolution and Extinction of Eodiscids and Agnostoid Arthropods.

ABSTRACT: The temporal range of eodiscids and agnostoid arthropods overlaps with several early Paleozoic geological events of evolutionary significance. However, the responses of agnostids to these events and how the perturbations associated with them (both abiotic and/or biotic) may have impacted agnostids remain uncertain. To address this uncertainty, we employ geometric morphometrics to reconstruct morphospace occupation for agnostids, thereby elucidating their evolutionary response to geological events during the early Paleozoic. The results indicate that maximum morphospace occupation was reached by Cambrian Series 2 and then declined soon thereafter. Subsequent reductions in agnostid morphospace occupation coincide not only with significant abiotic changes and associated extinction events, suc

SUBMITTER: Li H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11766919 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature