Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T00:23:17.966Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nonprogressive evolution in a clade of Cretaceous Montastraea-like corals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Ann F. Budd
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Anthony G. Coates
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama

Abstract

A phylogeny of Cretaceous Montastraea-like corals was constructed and used to evaluate the importance of differential speciation, selective extinction, and developmental constraints in the evolutionary history of the clade. Colonies assembled from localities across the central and western Tethyan region were subdivided into four stratigraphic levels: (1) Neocomian to lower Albian, (2) upper Albian to Cenomanian, (3) Turonian to Campanian, and (4) Maastrichtian. Ten corallite characters were measured on transverse thin sections of each colony, and analyzed following a three-step procedure: (1) species were recognized using all-inclusive average linkage cluster analyses (UPGMA) and a series of iterative canonical discriminant analyses; (2) species were separated by stratigraphic level and linked between levels by comparative analysis of the resulting discriminant scores; and (3) ancestor-descendant relationships were interpreted within and among adjacent levels using phenetic and cladistic approaches. A composite tree was then examined with respect to biogeography.

The results suggest that a total of 16 species existed during the Cretaceous, only 2 of which extended between stratigraphic levels. Speciation events between levels 1 and 2 were associated with the radiation of “small-corallite” forms from a “large-corallite” form, as its distribution expanded southward into the Tethyan realm. Limited speciation and stasis predominated among species within the clade between levels 2 and 3. Speciation events between levels 3 and 4 were associated with the radiation of predominantly “large-corallite” forms from a “small-corallite” form, as the clade became restricted to the Caribbean. Extinction initially focussed on “small-corallite” forms, but later shifted to “large-corallite” forms. Morphologic change was constrained between two extremes, the lower limit of which involved a minimum corallite diameter possibly set by developmental or ecological constraints, and the upper by limitations to increases in number of septa. The overall net result was that of nonprogressive evolution within the clade.

Type
Research Article
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

Archie, J. W. 1985. Methods for coding variable morphological features for numerical taxonomic analysis. Systematic Zoology 34:326345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauvais, L., and Beauvais, M. 1974. Studies on the world distribution of Upper Cretaceous corals. Proceedings of the 2nd International Coral Reef Symposium 1:475494.Google Scholar
Bell, M. A. 1988. Stickleback fishes: bridging the gap between population biology and paleobiology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 3:320325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretsky, S. S. 1979. Recognition of ancestor-descendant relationships in invertebrate paleontology. Pp. 113163in Cracraft, J. and Eldredge, N., eds. Phylogenetic analysis and paleontology. Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budd, A. F. 1988. Large-scale evolutionary patterns in the reef-coral Montastraea: the role of phenotypic plasticity. Proceedings of the 6th International Coral Reef Symposium 3:393398.Google Scholar
Budd, A. F. 1990a. Longterm patterns of morphological variation within and among species of reef-corals and their relationship to sexual reproduction. Systematic Botany 15:150165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budd, A. F. 1990b. The role of historical factors in generating large-scale evolutionary trends in a common reef-coral. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 22:A267.Google Scholar
Budd, A. F. 1991. Neogene paleontology in the Northern Dominican Republic. 11. The Family Faviidae (Anthozoa: Scleractinia). Part I. Bulletins of American Paleontology 101(338):583.Google Scholar
Budd, A. F., and Coates, A. G. 1989. Clade shape in the reef-coral Montastraea during the Cretaceous. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 21:A288.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., and Edwards, A.W.F. 1967. Phylogenetic analysis: models and estimation procedures. Evolution 21:550570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheetham, A. H. 1986a. Branching, biomechanics and bryozoan evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 228:151171.Google Scholar
Cheetham, A. H. 1986b. Tempo of evolution in a Neogene bryozoan: rates of morphologic change within and across species boundaries. Paleobiology 12:190202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheetham, A. H. 1987. Tempo of evolution in a Neogene bryozoan: are trends in single morphologic characters misleading? Paleobiology 13:286296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheetham, A. H., and Hayek, L. C. 1988. Phylogeny reconstruction in the Neogene bryozoan Metrarabdotus: a paleontologic evaluation of methodology. Historical Biology 1:6583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, A. G. 1973. Cretaceous-Tethyan Coral-Rudist biogeography related to the evolution of the Atlantic Ocean. Pp. 169174in Hughes, N. F., ed. Organisms and continents through time. Special Papers in Palaeontology 12. The Palaeontological Association, London.Google Scholar
Coates, A. G., and Jackson, J.B.C. 1985. Morphological themes in the evolution of clonal and aclonal marine invertebrates. Pp. 67106in Jackson, J.B.C., Buss, L. W., and Cook, R. E., eds. Population biology and evolution of clonal organisms. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Cuffey, R. J., and Pachut, J. F. 1990. Clinal morphological variation along a depth gradient in the living scleractinian coral Favia pallida: effects on perceived evolutionary tempos in the fossil record. Palaios 5:580588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldredge, N. and Novacek, M. J. 1985. Systematics and paleobiology. Paleobiology 11:6574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelmann, G. F., and Wiley, E. O. 1977. The place of ancestor-descendant relationships in phylogeny reconstruction. Systematic Zoology 26:111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farris, J. S. 1970. Methods for computing Wagner trees. Systematic Zoology 34:2134.Google Scholar
Farris, J. S. 1983. The logical basis of phylogenetic systematics. Pp. 736in Funk, V. A. and Brooks, D. R., eds. Advances in cladistics: proceedings of the first meeting of the Willi Hennig Society. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx.Google Scholar
Farris, J. S. 1988. Hennig86, version 1.5. Privately distributed, New York.Google Scholar
Felsenstein, J. 1978. Cases in which parsimony or compatibility methods will be positively misleading. Systematic Zoology 27:401410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felsenstein, J. 1982. Numerical methods for inferring evolutionary trees. The Quarterly Review of Biology 57:379404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felsenstein, J. 1989. PHYLIP: phylogeny inference package, version 3.2. University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
Fitch, W. M. 1984. Cladistic and other methods: problems, pitfalls, and potentials. Pp. 221252in Duncan, T. and Stuessy, T. F., eds. Cladistics: perspectives on the reconstruction of evolutionary history. Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, A. B. 1984. The species concept in fossil hermatypic corals: a statistical approach. Palaeontographica Americana 54:5869.Google Scholar
Foster, A. B. 1985. Variation within coral colonies and its importance for interpreting fossil species. Journal of Paleontology 59:13591383.Google Scholar
Fromentel, L.E.G. de. 1857. Description des polypiers fossiles de l'étage néocomien. Soc. Sci. Yonne, Bull. Pp. 178.Google Scholar
Gilinsky, N. L. 1986. Species selection as a causal process. Evolutionary Biology 20:249273.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1979. The stratophenetic approach to phylogeny reconstruction in vertebrate paleontology. Pp. 4177in Cracraft, J. and Eldredge, N., eds. Phylogenetic analysis and paleontology. Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1988. Trends as changes in variance: a new slant on progress and directionality in evolution. Journal of Paleontology 62:319329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J.B.C., and Cheetham, A. H. 1990. Evolutionary significance of morphospecies: a test with cheilostome bryozoa. Science (Washington, D.C.) 248:579583.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, J.B.C., and McKinney, F. K. 1990. Ecological processes and progressive macroevolution of marine clonal benthos. Pp. 173209in Ross, R. M. and Allmon, W. D., eds. Causes of evolution: a paleontological perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kauffman, E. G. 1973. Cretaceous Bivalvia. Pp. 353383in Hallam, A., ed. Atlas of paleobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Kauffman, E. G. 1977. Geological and biological overview: western interior Cretaceous basin. Mountain Geologist 14:7599.Google Scholar
Kauffman, E. G. 1984. The fabric of Cretaceous marine extinctions. Pp. 151246in Berggren, W. A. and Van Couvering, J. A., eds. Catastrophes and earth history, the new uniformitarianism. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.Google Scholar
Klecka, W. R. 1980. Discriminant analysis. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Calif.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowlton, N., Weil, E., Weigt, L. A., and Guzman, H. M. 1992. Sibling species in Montastraea annularis, coral bleaching, and the coral climate record. Science (Washington, D.C.) 255:330333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koch, C. F. 1987. Prediction of sample size effects on the measured temporal and geographic distribution patterns of species. Paleobiology 13:100107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, C. F., and Sohl, N. F. 1983. Preservational effects in paleoecological studies: Cretaceous mollusc examples. Paleobiology 9:2634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lauder, G. V. 1981. Form and function: structural analysis in evolutionary morphology. Paleobiology 7:430442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lidgard, S., and Jackson, J.B.C. 1989. Growth in encrusting cheilostome bryozoans: I. Evolutionary trends. Paleobiology 15:255282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middlemiss, F. A. 1964. Brachiopods and shorelines in the lower Cretaceous. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 13:613626.Google Scholar
Milne Edwards, H., and Haime, J. 1851. A monograph of the British fossil corals. Pt. 2. Corals from the oolitic formations. Printed for the Palaeontographical Society, London.Google Scholar
Miyazaki, J. M., and Mickevich, M. F. 1982. Evolution in Chesapecten (Mollusca: Bivalvia, Miocene-Pliocene) and the biogenetic law. Evolutionary Biology 15:369409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mooi, R. 1990. Paedomorphosis, Aristotle's lantern, and the origin of sand dollars (Echinodermata: Clypeasteroidea). Paleobiology 16:2548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orbigny, A.C.V.D. d'. 1849. Note sur des polypiers fossiles. Paris.Google Scholar
Porter, J. W. 1976. Autotrophy, heterotrophy, and resource partitioning in Caribbean reef-building corals. American Naturalist 110:731742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawson, P. F., Curry, D., Dilley, F. C., Hancock, J. M., Kennedy, W. J., Neale, J. W., Wood, C. J., and Worssam, B. C. 1978. A correlation of Cretaceous rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London, Special Report no. 9. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Reuss, A. E. von. 1854. Beiträge zur Characteristik der Kreideschichten in dem Ostalpen besonders in Gosauthale und am Wolfgangsee. Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien, mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Classe, Denkschriften 7:1157.Google Scholar
Rosen, B. R. 1984. Reef coral biogeography and climate through the late Cainozoic: just islands in the sun or a critical pattern of islands? Pp. 201260in Brenchley, P., ed. Fossils and climate. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Scott, R. W. 1981. Biotic relations in early Cretaceous coralalgal-rudist reefs, Arizona. Journal of Paleontology 55:11081127.Google Scholar
Smith, A. G., and Briden, J. C. 1977. Mesozoic and Cenozoic paleocontinental maps. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sober, E. 1983. Parsimony in systematics: philosophical issues. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 14:335357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R. R. 1985. The continuing search for order. American Naturalist 126:729749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R. R. 1986. Phenetic taxonomy: theory and methods. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 17:423442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1973. An explanation for Cope's rule. Evolution 27:126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanley, S. M. 1975. A theory of evolution above the species level. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, U.S.A. 72:646650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution: pattern and process. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Stehli, F. G., and Wells, J. W. 1971. Diversity and age patterns in hermatypic corals. Systematic Zoology 20:115126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 1985. PAUP: phylogenetic analysis using parsimony, version 2.4. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, 111.Google Scholar
Swofford, D. L., and Olsen, G. J. 1990. Phylogeny reconstruction. Pp. 411501in Hillis, D. M. and Moritz, C., eds. Molecular systematics. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.Google Scholar
Szmant, A. M. 1986. Reproductive ecology of Caribbean reef corals. Coral Reefs 5:4353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, T. W. 1903. Corals of the Buda Limestone. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 205:3740.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G. J. 1987. Evolution and escalation, an ecological history of life. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrba, E. S., and Gould, S. J. 1986. The hierarchical expansion of sorting and selection: sorting and selection cannot be equated. Paleobiology 12:217228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, J. W. 1932. Corals of the Trinity Group of the Comanchean of central Texas. Journal of Paleontology 6:225256.Google Scholar
Wells, J. W. 1933. Corals of the Cretaceous of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains and western interior of the United States. Bulletins of American Paleontology 18:85288.Google Scholar
Wells, J. W. 1956. Scleractinia. Pp. F328F444in Moore, R. C., ed. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, vol. F. The Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.Google Scholar
Winer, B. J. 1971. Statistical principles in experimental design. 2d ed.McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar