دورية أكاديمية

Morphospace saturation in the stem-gnathostomes pteraspidiformes heterostracans: an early radiation of a ‘bottom’ heavy clade

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Morphospace saturation in the stem-gnathostomes pteraspidiformes heterostracans: an early radiation of a ‘bottom’ heavy clade
المؤلفون: Marco Romano, Robert Sansom, Emma Randle
المصدر: PeerJ, Vol 6, p e5249 (2018)
بيانات النشر: PeerJ Inc., 2018.
سنة النشر: 2018
المجموعة: LCC:Medicine
LCC:Biology (General)
مصطلحات موضوعية: Ostracoderms, Disparity, Diversity, Jawless vertebrates, Silurian, Devonian, Medicine, Biology (General), QH301-705.5
الوصف: Ostracoderms (fossil armoured jawless fishes) shed light on early vertebrate evolution by revealing the step-wise acquisition of jawed vertebrate characters, and were important constituents of Middle Palaeozoic vertebrate faunas. A wide variety of head shield shapes are observed within and between the ostracoderm groups, but the timing of these diversifications and the consistency between different measures of their morphospace are unclear. Here, we present the first disparity (explored morphospace) versus diversity (number of taxa) analysis of Pteraspidiformes heterostracans using continuous and discrete characters. Patterns of taxic diversity and morphological disparity are in accordance: they both show a rise to a peak in the Lochkovian followed by a gradual decline in the Middle-Late Devonian. Patterns are largely consistent for disparity measures using sum of ranges or total variance, and when using continuous or discrete characters. Pteraspidiformes heterostracans can be classified as a “bottom-heavy clade”, i.e., a group where a high initial disparity decreasing over time is detected. In fact, the group explored morphospace early in its evolutionary history, with much of the subsequent variation in dermal armour occurring as variation in the proportions of already evolved anatomical features. This Early Devonian radiation is also in agreement with the paleobiogeographic distribution of the group, with a maximum of dispersal and explored morphospace during the Lochkovian and Pragian time bins.
نوع الوثيقة: article
وصف الملف: electronic resource
اللغة: English
تدمد: 2167-8359
Relation: https://peerj.com/articles/5249.pdf; https://peerj.com/articles/5249/; https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5249
URL الوصول: https://doaj.org/article/dbf773396d30411b9b153905ef7ad559
رقم الأكسشن: edsdoj.bf773396d30411b9b153905ef7ad559
قاعدة البيانات: Directory of Open Access Journals