Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:57:25.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the estimation of taxonomic longevity from Lyellian curves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Jeffrey S. Levinton  and
James S. Farris
Jeffrey S. Levinton
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245
James S. Farris
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stanley's (1979) method of estimating taxonomic longevity from Lyellian curves differs from Kurtén's (1960) because of different underlying assumptions. Kurtén's model supposes that taxon richness and longevity are stochastically invariate over the period used for the Lyellian estimate. Both Kurtén and Stanley seek to calculate the average longevity of a taxon, when the temporal stratigraphic ranges are known after and before a given time datum. Under the exponential decay model used by Kurtén, mean taxonomic longevity is indeed approximately 2.89 half-lives, as he maintained. Stanley's estimate is based on the unrealistic assumptions of uniform longevity and evenly-spaced origins of fossil taxa. This leads to an estimate of longevity as exactly two half-lives.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , Fall 1987 , pp. 479 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Kurtén, B. 1959. On the longevity of mammalian species in the Tertiary. Soc. Scient. Fenn. Comm. Biol. 21:1–14.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B. 1960. Chronology and faunal evolution of the earlier European glaciations. Soc. Scient. Fenn. Comm. Biol. 21:40–62.Google Scholar
Lindgren, B. W. 1962. Statistical Theory. 427 pp. Macmillan; New York.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1944. Tempo and Mode in Evolution. 237 pp. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1975. A theory of evolution above the species level. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 72:646–650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution: Pattern and Process. 332 pp. W. B. Freeman and Co.; San Francisco.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1985. Rates of evoution. Paleobiology. 11:13–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S. M. and L. D. Campbell. 1981. Neogene mass extinction of western Atlantic molluscs. Nature 293:457–459.Google Scholar