Continuous evolutionary change in Plio-Pleistocene mammals of eastern Africa.

ABSTRACT: Much debate has revolved around the question of whether the mode of evolutionary and ecological turnover in the fossil record of African mammals was continuous or pulsed, and the degree to which faunal turnover tracked changes in global climate. Here, we assembled and analyzed large specimen databases of the fossil record of eastern African Bovidae (antelopes) and Turkana Basin large mammals. Our results indicate that speciation and extinction proceeded continuously throughout the Pliocene and Pleistocene, as did increases in the relative abundance of arid-adapted bovids, and in bovid body mass. Species durations were similar among clades with different ecological attributes. Occupancy patterns were unimodal, with long and nearly symmetrical origination and extinction phases. A single orig

SUBMITTER: Bibi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4553785 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature