Evolutionary Transition in the Late Neogene Planktonic Foraminiferal Genus Truncorotalia.

ABSTRACT: The fossil record provides empirical patterns of morphological change through time and is central to the study of the tempo and mode of evolution. Here we apply likelihood-based time-series analyses to the near-continuous fossil record of Neogene planktonic foraminifera and reveal a morphological shift along the Truncorotalia lineage. Based on a geometric morphometric dataset of 1,459 specimens, spanning 5.9-4.5 Ma, we recover a shift in the mode of evolution from a disparate latest Miocene morphospace to a highly constrained early Pliocene morphospace. Our recovered dynamics are consistent with those stipulated by Simpson's quantum evolution and Eldredge-Gould's punctuated equilibria and supports previous suppositions that even within a single lineage, evolutionary dynamics require a mult

SUBMITTER: Bicknell RDC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6205115 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature