Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T12:02:24.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conversations about Phanerozoic global diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Arnold I. Miller
Arnold I. Miller*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Post Office Box 210013, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0013. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The emergence of Phanerozoic global diversity as a central theme of investigation has resulted from a confluence of factors, including the assembly by several researchers of global taxonomic databases; the advent of computers, which permitted construction and analysis of global Phanerozoic diversity trajectories; and the recognition that Phanerozoic diversity trends are important bellwethers of the evolutionary processes that cause biotic transitions. Despite the enormous progress in the measurement and interpretation of Phanerozoic diversity over the past quarter century, much of which has been reported in Paleobiology, these studies have collectively generated at least as many new questions as they have answered—arguably the mark of an area of inquiry that continues to be vital. In this essay, I discuss several outstanding issues in the investigation of Phanerozoic diversity, ranging from the viability of literature-derived databases for investigating global diversity trends, to the biological significance of the myriad biotic transitions that have taken place throughout the Phanerozoic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 26 , Issue S4: Deep Time: Paleobiology's Perspective , 2000 , pp. 53 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by 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

Adrain, J. A., and Westrop, S. R. 2000. An empirical assessment of taxic paleobiology. Science (in press).Google Scholar
Adrain, J. A., Fortey, R. A., and Westrop, S. R. 1998. Post-Cambrian trilobite diversity and evolutionary faunas. Science 280:1922–1925.Google Scholar
Adrain, J. A., Westrop, S. R., Chatterton, B. D. E., and Ramsköld, L. 2000. Silurian trilobite alpha diversity and the end-Ordovician mass extinction. Paleobiology 26:625–646.Google Scholar
Alroy, J. 1996. Constant extinction, constrained diversification, and uncoordinated stasis in North American mammals. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 127:285–312.Google Scholar
Alroy, J. 1998. Equilibrial diversity dynamics in North American mammals. Pp. 232–287 in McKinney and Drake 1998.Google Scholar
Aronson, R. B. 1994. Scale-independent biological interactions in the marine environment. Oceanography and Marine Biology, an Annual Review 32:435–460.Google Scholar
Aronson, R. B., and Plotnick, R. E. 1998. Scale-independent interpretations of macroevolutionary dynamics. Pp. 430–450 in McKinney and Drake 1998.Google Scholar
Bambach, R. K. 1977. Species richness in marine benthic habitats through the Phanerozoic. Paleobiology 3:152–167.Google Scholar
Bambach, R. K. 1985. Classes and adaptive variety: the ecology of diversification in marine faunas through the Phanerozoic. Pp. 191–253 in Valentine, J. W., ed. Phanerozoic diversity patterns: profiles in macroevolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Google Scholar
Bambach, R. K. 1993. Seafood through time: changes in biomass, energetics, and productivity in the marine ecosystem. Paleobiology 19:372–397.Google Scholar
Bennett, K. D. 1990. Milankovitch cycles and their effects on species in ecological and evolutionary time. Paleobiology 16:11–21.Google Scholar
Bennett, K. D. 1997. Evolution and ecology: the pace of life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1987. Progress and competition in macroevolution. Biological Reviews 62:305–338.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1991. Extinction, biotic replacements, and clade interactions. Pp. 89–102 in Dudley, E. C., ed. The unity of evolutionary biology. Dioscorides, Portland, Ore.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1995. Diversification and extinction in the history of life. Science 268:52–58.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1996. On the nonprevalance of competitive replacement in the evolution of tetrapods. Pp. 185–210 in Jablonski, D., Erwin, D. H., and Lipps, J. H., eds. Evolutionary paleobiology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1997. Models for the diversification of life. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:490–495.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. 1999. The history of life: large databases in palaeontology. Pp. 249–283 in Harper, D. A. T., ed. Numerical paleobiology: computer based modelling of fossils and their distributions. Wiley, Chichester, England.Google Scholar
Blake, D. B., and Guensburg, T. E. 1990. Predatory asteroids and the fate of brachiopods—a comment. Lethaia 23:429–430.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E., and Baird, G. C. 1995. Coordinated stasis and evolutionary ecology of Silurian to Middle Devonian faunas in the Appalachian Basin. Pp. 285–315 in Erwin, D. H. and Anstey, R. L., eds. New approaches to speciation in the fossil record. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Brett, C. E., Ivany, L. C., and Schopf, K. M. 1996. Coordinated stasis: an overview. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 127:1–20.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. 1998. The crucible of creation: the Burgess Shale and the rise of animals. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Courtillot, V., and Gaudemer, Y. 1996. Effects of mass extinctions on biodiversity. Nature 381:146–148.Google Scholar
Donovan, S. K., and Gale, A. S. 1990. Predatory asteroids and the decline of the articulate brachiopods. Lethaia 23:77–86.Google Scholar
Eble, G. J. 1999. Originations: land and sea compared. Geobios 32:223–234.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1987. Life pulse: episodes from the story of the fossil record. Facts on File, New York.Google Scholar
Erwin, D. H., Valentine, J. W., and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1987. A comparative study of diversification events: the early Paleozoic versus the Mesozoic. Evolution 41:1177–1186.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 1993. Discordance and concordance between morphological and taxonomic diversity. Paleobiology 19:185–204.Google Scholar
Foote, M. 1997. Sampling, taxonomic description, and our evolving knowledge of morphological diversity. Paleobiology 23:181–206.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N. L. 1994. Volatility and the Phanerozoic decline of background extinction intensity. Paleobiology 20:445–458.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N. L. 1998. Evolutionary turnover and volatility in higher taxa. Pp. 162–184 in McKinney and Drake 1998.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N. L., and Bambach, R. K. 1987. Asymmetrical patterns of origination and extinction in higher taxa. Paleobiology 13:427–445.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1985. The paradox of the first tier: an agenda for paleobiology. Paleobiology 11:2–12.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Calloway, C. B. 1980. Clams and brachiopods—ships that pass in the night. Paleobiology 6:383–396.Google Scholar
Ivany, L. C. 1996. Coordinated stasis or coordinated turnover? Exploring intrinsic vs. extrinsic controls on pattern. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 127:239–256.Google Scholar
Ivany, L. C., and Schopf, K. M., eds. 1996. New perspectives on faunal stability in the fossil record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 127.Google Scholar
Kitchell, J. A., and Carr, T. R. 1985. Nonequilibrium model of diversification: faunal turnover dynamics. Pp. 277–309 in Valentine, J. W., ed. Phanerozoic diversity patterns: profiles in macroevolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Google Scholar
Lidgard, S., McKinney, F. K., and Taylor, P. D. 1993. Competition, clade replacement, and a history of cyclostome and cheilostome bryozoan diversity. Paleobiology 19:352–371.Google Scholar
Lupia, R., Lidgard, S., and Crane, P. R. 1999. Comparing palynological abundance and diversity: implications for biotic replacement during the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation. Paleobiology 25:305–340.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O. 1963. An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution 17:373–387.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O. 1967. The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Google Scholar
Martin, R. E. 1998. Catastrophic fluctuations in nutrient levels as an agent of mass extinction: upward scaling of ecological processes. Pp. 405–429 in McKinney and Drake 1998.Google Scholar
Maxwell, W. D., and Benton, M. J. 1990. Historical tests of the absolute completeness of the fossil record of tetrapods. Paleobiology 16:322–335.Google Scholar
McKinney, F. K. 1992. Competitive interactions between related clades: evolutionary implications of overgrowth between encrusting cyclostome and cheilostome bryozoans. Marine Biology 114:645–652.Google Scholar
McKinney, F. K. 1995. One hundred million years of competitive interactions between bryozoan clades: asymmetrical but not escalating. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 56:465–481.Google Scholar
McKinney, F. K., Lidgard, S., Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., and Taylor, P. D. 1998. Decoupled temporal patterns of evolution and ecology in two post-Paleozoic clades. Science 281:807–809.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L., and Drake, J. A., eds. 1998. Biodiversity dynamics: turnover of populations, taxa, and communities. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1997a. Comparative diversification dynamics among palaeocontinents during the Ordovician Radiation. Geobios Mémoire Spécial 20:397–406.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1997b. Coordinated stasis or coincident relative stability? Paleobiology 23:155–164.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1998. Biotic transitions in global marine diversity. Science 281:1157–1160.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I., and Cummins, H. 1990. A numerical model for the formation of fossil assemblages: estimating the amount of post-mortem transport along environmental gradients. Palaios 5:303–316.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I., and Foote, M. 1996. Calibrating the Ordovician radiation of marine life: implications for Phanerozoic diversity trends. Paleobiology 22:304–309.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I., and Mao, S. 1995. Association of orogenic activity with the Ordovician radiation of marine life. Geology 23:305–308.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I., and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1988. Modeling bivalve diversification: the effect of interaction on a macroevolutionary system. Paleobiology 14:364–369.Google Scholar
Morris, J. 1854. A catalogue of British fossils. The author, London.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D. 1967. Revolutions in the history of life. Geological Society of America Special Paper 89:63–91.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E. 1995. Ecological aspects of the Ordovician radiation of articulate brachiopods. Pp. 413–414 in Cooper, J. D., Droser, M. L., and Finney, S. C., eds. Ordovician odyssey: short papers for the seventh international symposium on the Ordovician System. Pacific Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), Fullerton, Calif.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E. 1999. A new agenda for evolutionary paleoecology—or would you in the background please step forward. Palaios 14:195–197.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E., and Holland, S. M. 1993. Biotic response to a Middle Ordovician paleoceanographic event in eastern North America. Geology 21:619–622.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E. 1997. Patterns of turnover in Middle and Upper Ordovician brachiopods of the eastern United States: a test of coordinated stasis. Paleobiology 23:420–443.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E. 1999. Biofacies replacement in a sequence stratigraphic framework: Middle and Upper Ordovician of the Nashville Dome, Tennessee, USA. Palaios 14:301–323.Google Scholar
Phillips, J. 1860. Life on the earth; its origin and succession. Macmillan, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1972. Taxonomic diversity during the Phanerozoic. Science 177:1065–1071.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1976a. Species diversity in the Phanerozoic: a tabulation. Paleobiology 2:279–288.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1976b. Species diversity in the Phanerozoic: an interpretation. Paleobiology 2:289–297.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1978. Cohort analysis of generic survivorship. Paleobiology 4:1–15.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1991. A kill curve for Phanerozoic marine species. Paleobiology 17:37–48.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1992. Large-body impact and extinction in the Phanerozoic. Paleobiology 18:80–88.Google Scholar
Rhodes, M. C., and Thompson, R. J. 1993. Comparative physiology of suspension-feeding in living brachiopods and bivalves: evolutionary implications. Paleobiology 19:322–334.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. 1995. Species diversity in space and time. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L., and McCord, R. D. 1991. Incumbent replacement: evidence for long-term evolutionary progress. Paleobiology 17:202–213.Google Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1974. Fossil-Vergesellschaftungen 20, flysch trace fossils: evolution of behavioural diversity in the deep sea. Neues Jarbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte 4:233–245.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1978. A kinetic mode of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity I. Analysis of marine orders. Paleobiology 4:223–251.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1979. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity II. Early Phanerozoic families and multiple equilibria. Paleobiology 5:222–251.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1981. A factor analytic description of the Phanerozoic marine fossil record. Paleobiology 7:36–53.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1982. A compendium of fossil marine families. Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1984. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity III. Post-Paleozoic families and multiple equilibria. Paleobiology 10:246–267.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1993. Ten years in the library: new data confirm paleontological patterns. Paleobiology 19:43–51.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1996. Competition in macroevolution: the double wedge revisited. Pp. 211–255 in Jablonski, D., Erwin, D. H., and Lipps, J. H., eds. Evolutionary paleobiology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., and Kendrick, D. C. 1993. Numerical experiments with model monophyletic and paraphyletic taxa. Paleobiology 19:168–184.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., Bambach, R. K., Raup, D. M., and Valentine, J. W. 1981. Phanerozoic marine diversity and the fossil record. Nature 293:435–437.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., McKinney, F. K., and Lidgard, S. 2000. Competitive displacement between post-Paleozoic cyclostome and cheilostome bryozoans. Paleobiology 26:7–18.Google Scholar
Signor, P. W., and Brett, C. E. 1994. The mid-Paleozoic precursor to the Mesozoic marine revolution. Paleobiology 10:229–245.Google Scholar
Solé, R. V., Manrubia, S. C., Benton, M., Kauffman, S., and Bak, P. 1999. Criticality and scaling in evolutionary ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14:156–160.Google Scholar
Steele-Petrovic, H. M. 1979. The physiological differences between articulate brachiopods and filter-feeding bivalves as a factor in the evolution of marine level-bottom communities. Palaeontology 22:101–134.Google Scholar
Thayer, C. W. 1979. Biological bulldozers and the evolution of marine benthic communities. Science 203:458–461.Google Scholar
Thayer, C. W. 1983. Sediment-mediated biological disturbance and the evolution of marine benthos. Pp. 479–625 in Tevesz, M. J. S. and McCall, P. L., eds. Biotic interactions in Recent and fossil benthic communities. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Thayer, C. W. 1985. Brachiopods versus mussels: competition, predation and palatability. Science 228:1527–1528.Google Scholar
Thayer, C. W. 1986. Are brachiopods better than bivalves? Mechanisms of turbidity tolerance and their interaction with feeding in articulates. Paleobiology 12:161–174.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1969. Patterns of taxonomic and ecological structure of the shelf benthos during Phanerozoic time. Palaeontology 12:684–709.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1970. How many marine invertebrate fossil species? A new approximation. Journal of Paleontology 44:410–415.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W., Tiffney, B. H., and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1991. Evolutionary dynamics of plants and animals: a comparative approach. Palaios 6:81–88.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1977. The Mesozoic marine revolution: evidence from snails, predators and grazers. Paleobiology 3:245–258.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1987. Evolution and escalation: an ecological history of life. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1990. Asteroids and articulates: is there a causal link? Lethaia 23:431–432.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1995. Economics, volcanoes, and Phanerozoic revolutions. Paleobiology 21:125–152.Google Scholar
Wagner, P. J. 1995. Testing evolutionary constraint hypotheses with early Paleozoic gastropods. Paleobiology 21:248–272.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R., and Adrain, J. A. 1998. Trilobite alpha diversity and the reorganization of Ordovician benthic marine communities. Paleobiology 24:1–16.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H. 1975. Communities and ecosystems. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar