Analysis of 34 paleontological studies in the fossil record yields no step rates quantifying change from one generation to the next, and thus cannot inform our understanding of generation-to-generation change by natural selection. However, temporal scaling of base rates found in fossil studies yields an LRI intercept and residuals consistent with the step rates found in selection experiments and field studies. Some 84% of the variance in evolutionary rates is determined by variance in interval lengths (rate denominators), meaning rates in the fossil record cannot be compared to rates in field studies without temporal scaling. Stasis predominates in the fossil record but change is evident too. Rapid change in a fossil study is change lying above a line fit to an empirical LRI distribution of base rates and their corresponding intervals: change lying above Y = −0.895 ∙ X − 0.615, where Y is log10 of the rate r and X is log10 of the corresponding interval i. When rate numerators are constrained to a range three orders of magnitude smaller than the range of their denominators, inverse scaling is inevitable.