Ten years in the library: new data confirm paleontological patterns

A comparison is made between compilations of times of origination and extinction of fossil marine animal families published in 1982 and 1992. As a result of ten years of library research, half of the information in the compendia has changed: families have been added and deleted, low-resolution stratigraphic data have been improved, and intervals of origination and extinction have been altered. Despite these changes, apparent macroevolutionary patterns for the entire marine fauna have remained constant. Diversity curves compiled from the two data bases are very similar, with a goodness-of-fit of 99%; the principal difference is that the 1992 curve averages 13% higher than the older curve. Both numbers and percentages of origination and extinction also match well, with fits ranging from 83% to 95%. All major events of radiation and extinction are identical. Therefore, errors in large paleontological data bases and arbitrariness of included taxa are not necessarily impediments to the analysis of pattern in the fossil record, so long as the data are sufficiently numerous.

[1]  J. Phillips.  Life on the Earth: Its Origin and Succession , 2007 .

[2]  J. Sepkoski.  A compendium of fossil marine animal families, 2nd edition. , 1992, Contributions in biology and geology.

[3]  W. Allmon.  Genera in paleontology: Definition and significance , 1992 .

[4]  M. Benton,et al.  Historical tests of the absolute completeness of the fossil record of tetrapods , 1990, Paleobiology.

[5]  W. B. Harland,et al.  A Geologic Time Scale 1989 , 1990 .

[6]  D. Raup.  The case for extraterrestrial causes of extinction. , 1989, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[7]  Eric W. Holman,et al.  Some evolutionary correlates of higher taxa , 1989, Paleobiology.

[8]  A. Smith,et al.  Periodicity in Extinction: The Role of Systematics , 1989 .

[9]  D. J. Strauss,et al.  Classical confidence intervals and Bayesian probability estimates for ends of local taxon ranges , 1989 .

[10]  Alfred R. Loeblich,et al.  Foraminiferal Genera and Their Classification , 1988 .

[11]  A. Smith,et al.  Is the periodicity of extinctions a taxonomic artefact? , 1987, Nature.

[12]  J. W. Valentine,et al.  A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIVERSIFICATION EVENTS: THE EARLY PALEOZOIC VERSUS THE MESOZOIC , 1987, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[13]  R. Bambach,et al.  Asymmetrical patterns of origination and extinction in higher taxa. , 1987, Paleobiology.

[14]  S. Culver,et al.  On the value of taxonomic standardization in evolutionary studies , 1987, Paleobiology.

[15]  George F. Boyajian.  Phanerozoic trends in background extinction: Consequence of an aging fauna , 1986 .

[16]  D. Raup,et al.  Causes and Consequences of Extinction , 1986 .

[17]  S. Stanley.  Anatomy of a regional mass extinction; Plio-Pleistocene decimation of the western Atlantic bivalve fauna , 1986 .

[18]  T. Carr,et al.  Chapter 8. Nonequilibrium Model of Diversification: Faunal Turnover Dynamics , 1986 .

[19]  Wang Yigang,et al.  Permian-Triassic boundary in middle and eastern Tethys , 1984 .

[20]  D. Raup,et al.  Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past. , 1984, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  Leigh M. Van Valen,et al.  A resetting of Phanerozoic community evolution , 1984, Nature.

[22]  D. Raup,et al.  Mass Extinctions in the Marine Fossil Record , 1982, Science.

[23]  David M. Raup,et al.  Phanerozoic marine diversity and the fossil record , 1981, Nature.

[24]  R. E. Grant.  The human face of the brachiopod , 1980 .

[25]  J. Sepkoski,et al.  A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity II. Early Phanerozoic families and multiple equilibria , 1979, Paleobiology.

[26]  David M. Raup,et al.  Species diversity in the Phanerozoic: a tabulation , 1976, Paleobiology.

[27]  D M Raup,et al.  Taxonomic Diversity during the Phanerozoic. , 1972, Science.

[28]  J. Durham.  The incompleteness of our knowledge of the fossil record , 1967 .

[29]  J. Sepkoski,et al.  The Proterozoic Biosphere: Biotic Diversity and Rates of Evolution During Proterozoic and Earliest Phanerozoic Time , 1992 .

[30]  P. W. Signor.  The Geologic History of Diversity , 1990 .

[31]  Charles R. Marshall,et al.  Confidence intervals on stratigraphic ranges , 1990, Paleobiology.

[32]  D. Erwin.  The End-Permian Mass Extinction , 1990 .

[33]  A. Zhuravlev,et al.  Regular Archaeocyaths: Morphology, systematics, biostratigraphy, palaeogeography, biological affinity , 1990 .

[34]  S. Morris,et al.  The persistence of Burgess Shale-type faunas: implications for the evolution of deeper-water faunas , 1989, Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

[35]  A. Smith,et al.  The Influence of Taxonomic Method on the Perception of Patterns of Evolution , 1988 .

[36]  Michael L. McKinney,et al.  Taxonomic selectivity and continuous variation in mass and background extinctions of marine taxa , 1987, Nature.

[37]  David M. Raup,et al.  Patterns and Processes in the History of Life , 1986, Dahlem Workshop Reports.

[38]  D. Raup,et al.  Periodicity in marine extinction events , 1986 .

[39]  Jere H. Lipps,et al.  Sampling bias, gradual extinction patterns and catastrophes in the fossil record , 1982 .

[40]  J. Sepkoski,et al.  A factor analytic description of the Phanerozoic marine fossil record , 1981, Paleobiology.

[41]  J. Bujak,et al.  Dinoflagellate diversity through time , 1979 .

[42]  D. Watson.  Vertebrate Paleontology , 1946, Nature.