Genetics, paleontology, and macroevolution

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface to the First Edition......Page 11
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 15
The Process and the Field of Macroevolution......Page 19
Definition of the Process of Macroevolution......Page 20
The Scope of Macroevolution......Page 21
The Role of Type in Evolutionary Concepts......Page 31
Macroevolution and the Fall of Goldschmidt......Page 37
Goldschmidt’s Useful Developmental Approach......Page 40
Macroevolution and Paleontology......Page 42
The Main Points......Page 48
Systematics and Macroevolutionary Hypotheses......Page 50
Advantages of the Genealogical Approach......Page 53
Constructing an Evolutionary Tree: A Cladistic Approach......Page 55
Cladograms and phylogenies......Page 61
Homoplasy: the fundamental problem......Page 64
Phenetics......Page 73
Molecular Approaches to Genealogy Construction......Page 77
Direct nucleotide sequences......Page 78
General Features and Problems in Tree Construction......Page 82
The Evolutionist–Phylogeneticist Conflict and Classification......Page 83
The Value of the Fossil Record......Page 87
The Main Points......Page 96
Why Worry about Species?......Page 99
Speciation: Process and Product......Page 103
Intraspecific Variation......Page 105
The genetic transition in speciation......Page 119
Intraspecific and interspecific chromosomal variation......Page 121
The models......Page 137
Transspecific Stasis......Page 158
Are New Species Accidents or Adaptations?......Page 159
The Species Selection Model......Page 164
The Main Points......Page 173
Constraint and Saltation......Page 175
The Holy Grail: Connecting an Understanding of Genes and Development......Page 176
Phylogeneticists and Developmentalists......Page 178
The Nature of Gene Activation in Development......Page 180
Gene function, development, and evolutionary change......Page 190
Switching on Developmental Events......Page 194
Organization, Compartmentalization, and Restriction in Development......Page 198
Morphological Gradients, Units, and Discontinuities......Page 209
Development, Genes, and Selection: The Evolutionary Ratchet......Page 216
Critique of the ratchet theory......Page 220
Developmental Organization and Macromutations......Page 224
Change of Developmental Programs: Heterochrony and Joint Responses......Page 233
The Main Points......Page 243
CHAPTER 5 The Constructional and Functional Aspects of Form......Page 245
Performance of Organisms and Adaptation......Page 246
Optimality: The Direction Adaptation Takes?......Page 253
The Study of Form......Page 283
Allometry and developmental constraint......Page 287
Other approaches to the comparisons of forms......Page 294
The Main Points......Page 301
The Taxic Approach to Measuring Evolutionary Rates......Page 303
The Stratigraphic Record: How Much Do We Have?......Page 304
What Is The Rate of Evolution in Fossil Lineages?......Page 310
Phenotypes, Genetic Variation, and Phenotypic Evolution......Page 319
Variation of the Rate of Evolution......Page 325
Testing for Punctuated Equilibrium......Page 329
Stasis......Page 352
Phyletic Gradualism: The Making of a Straw Man......Page 361
The Assembly of a Complex Bauplan......Page 370
The Main Points......Page 383
Introduction......Page 385
The Quality of the Data......Page 387
The Overall Pattern......Page 395
Taxon Longevity and Lyellian Curves......Page 401
Stochastic Models of Appearance and Taxon Longevity......Page 407
Regulation of Diversity......Page 409
Biogeography, Provinciality, Diversity, and Diversification......Page 418
Extinction and Mass Extinction......Page 428
The Main Points......Page 459
Introduction......Page 461
Origins of the Problem......Page 462
The Early Cambrian Is Established as the Cornucopia of Animal Life......Page 466
The Ediacaran Challenge......Page 469
The Burgess Shale and Charles D. Walcott......Page 471
The Cambrian Diversity Trap......Page 475
Higher Categories Come First......Page 477
“Oddballs from the Cambrian Start to Get Even”......Page 478
Precambrian Whisperings of the Rise of Animal Life?......Page 487
Precambrian Fossils Reconsidered......Page 498
So Why Not More, Where Are They, and Where Did They Come From?......Page 502
And Did They Come Only Once?......Page 505
What Was the Cambrian Explosion, and What Did Cause It?......Page 507
The Main Points......Page 511
I. The Stabilization of Form......Page 513
II. No Evidence for the Sudden and Nearly Simultaneous Rise of Basic Body Plans......Page 515
IV. Adaptive Evolution Has Centrifugal and Centripetal Components......Page 517
V.The Fossil Record Is Readily Extrapolated from Population Variation, Genetic Determination, and Natural Selection; No…......Page 519
VI. Saltation Is a Nonproblem in Evolution......Page 521
VII. Character Evolution is Strongly Affected by Organismic Integration and Compartmentalization......Page 524
VIII. We Still Do Not Understand the Beginning, or What Controls the Rate of the Beginning......Page 525
IX. The Hierarchical Structure of Life Eludes Us as A Successful Framework within Which to Discover Evolutionary Change and…......Page 526
X. The Unexpected Will Overwhelm Our Preconceived Notions......Page 527
Glossary of Macroevolution......Page 529
References......Page 537
AUTHOR INDEX......Page 605
SUBJECT INDEX......Page 623