Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-19T03:52:04.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A study of stasis and change in two species lineages from the Middle Devonian of New York state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Bruce S. Lieberman ,
Carlton E. Brett  and
Niles Eldredge
Bruce S. Lieberman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Kline Geology Lab, Post Office Box 208109, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109, and Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at Seventy-ninth Street, New York, New York 10024
Carlton E. Brett
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
Niles Eldredge
Affiliation:
Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at Seventy-ninth Street, New York, New York 10024
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

More than 5000 measurements were taken on over 1000 specimens of two species of brachiopods, Mediospirifer audaculus and Athyris spiriferoides, from the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York state. Statistical analyses were performed on these data, with specimens partitioned by their occurrence in one of many paleoenvironments and stratigraphic horizons. Neither species showed substantial morphological departures between first appearance and extinction (the range of the Hamilton Group, roughly 5 m.y.). However, oscillations in morphology were discovered in both taxa.

For the two species we studied, groups of organisms occurring in a single paleoenvironment undergo moderate morphological change through time; however, the net sum of changes through time in all paleoenvironments in which these species occur is essentially zero. Therefore, stasis may be partly a property of the organization of species into different environmental populations. Different “environmental populations” may evolve, but they will typically do so in several different “directions,” generally producing no net change. The difference between the morphology of species in different environments over the whole interval of the Hamilton Group is also nil, thereby ruling out any major role that ecophenotypic effects could play in the patterns recognized herein.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Winter 1995 , pp. 15 - 27
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

Bookstein, F. L. 1987. Random walk and the existence of evolutionary rates. Paleobiology 13:446–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, C. 1986a. Dynamic stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part 1. New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E. 1986b. The Middle Devonian Hamilton group of New York: an overview. Pp. 1–4in Brett, 1986a.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E., and Baird, G. C. 1986. Symmetrical and upward shallowing cycles in the Middle Devonian of New York State and their implications for the punctuated aggradational cycle hypothesis. Paleoceanography 1:431–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, C. E., Speyer, S. E., and Baird, G. C. 1986. Storm-generated sedimentary units: tempestite proximality and event stratification in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York. Pp. 129–156in Brett, 1986a.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E., Miller, K. B., and Baird, G. C. 1990. A temporal hierarchy of paleoecologic processes within a Middle Devonian epeiric sea. Pp. 178–209in Miller, W. III, ed. Paleocommunity temporal dynamics: the long-term development of multispecies assemblies. Paleontological Society Special Publication 5.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E., Dick, V. B., and Baird, G. C. 1991. Comparative taphonomy and paleoecology of Middle Devonian dark grey and black shale facies from western New York. Pp. 5–36in Landing, E. and Brett, C. E., eds. Dynamic stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State. New York State Museum Bulletin 469.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. A., Butts, C., Caster, K. E., Chadwick, G. H., Goldring, W., Kindle, E. M., Kirk, E., Merriam, C. W., Swartz, F. M., Warren, P. S., Warthin, A. S., and Willard, B. 1942. Correlation of the Devonian sedimentary formations of North America. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 53:1729–1794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1972. Systematics and evolution of Phacops rana (Green, 1832) and Phacops iowensis Delo, 1935 (Trilobita) from the Middle Devonian of North America. American Museum of Natural History Bulletin 147:45–114.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1989. Macroevolutionary dynamics. McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., and Cracraft, J. 1980. Phylogenetic patterns and the evolutionary process. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ettensohn, F. R. 1985. The Catskill Delta complex and the Acadian orogeny: a model. Pp. 39–50in Woodrow, D. L. and Sevon, W. D., eds. The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3:115–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, D. V. 1985. Paleocontinental setting for the Catskill Delta. Pp. 9–14in Woodrow, D. L. and Sevon, W. D., eds. The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lande, R. 1986. The dynamics of peak shifts and the pattern of morphological evolution. Paleobiology 12:343–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, B. S., Brett, C. E., and Eldredge, N.In press. Patterns and processes of stasis in two brachiopod species lineages in The Middle Devonian of New York State. American Museum of Natural History Novitates.Google Scholar
Miller, K. 1986. Depositional environments and sequences “Pleurodictyum Zone,” Ludlowville Formation of Western New York. Pp. 57–77in Brett, 1986a.Google Scholar
Miller, R. G. Jr. 1966. Simultaneous statistical inference. McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
SAS Institute Inc. 1990. SAS user's guide. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, N.C.Google Scholar
Savarese, M., Gray, L. M., and Brett, C. E. 1986. Faunal and lithologic cyclicity in the centerfield member (Middle Devonian: Hamilton Group) of Western New York: a reinterpretation of depositional history. Pp. 32–56in Brett, 1986a.Google Scholar
Sheldon, P. 1993. Making sense of microevolutionary patterns. Pp. 19–31in Lees, D. R. and Edwards, D., eds. Evolutionary patterns and processes. Linnaean Society Symposium Volume 14.Google Scholar
Somers, K. M. 1989. Allometry, isometry and shape in principal components analysis. Systematic Zoology 38:169–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soper, N. J., Strachan, R. A., Holdsworth, R. E., Gayer, R. A., and Greiling, R. O. 1992. Sinistral transpression and the Silurian closure of Iapetus. Journal of the Geological Society 149:871–880.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Sundberg, P. 1989. Shape and size-constrained principal components analysis. Systematic Zoology 38:166–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, K., Golubic, S., and Brett, C. E. 1987. Endolith associations and their relation to facies distribution in the Middle Devonian of New York State, U.S.A. Lethaia 20:263–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, P. G. 1987. Selection or constraint? A proposal on the mechanism for stasis. Pp. 129–142in Campbell, K. S. W. and Day, M. F., eds. Rates of evolution. Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Wright, S. 1931. Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics 16:97–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed