Giant suspension feeders such as mysticete whales, basking and whale sharks, and the extinct (indicated by ‘’) pachycormiform teleosts are conspicuous members of modern and fossil marine vertebrate faunas. Whether convergent anatomical [...]
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In the geological past, changes in climate and tectonic activity are thought to have spurred the tempo of evolutionary change among major taxonomic groups of plants and animals. However, the extent to which these historical contingencies increased [...] The acquisition of hypsodont molars is often regarded as a key innovation in the history of ruminant ungulates. Hypsodont ruminants diversified rapidly during the later Neogene, circa 15–2 Myr ago, and came to dominate the ruminant fossil [...] Submarine hydrothermal vents above serpentinite produce chemical potential gradients of aqueous and ionic hydrogen, thus providing a very attractive venue for the origin of life. This environment was most favourable before Earth’s massive CO2 [...] Conifers are an excellent group in which to explore how changing ecological interactions may have influenced the allocation of reproductive tissues in seed plants over long time scales, because of their extensive fossil record and their important [...] Although the recent historical period is usually treated as a temporal base-line for understanding patterns of mammal extinction, mammalian biodiversity loss has also taken place throughout the Late Quaternary. We explore the spatial, taxonomic and [...] Macroecology was developed as a big picture statistical approach to the study of ecology and evolution. By focusing on broadly occurring patterns and processes operating at large spatial and temporal scales rather than on localized and/or fine-scaled [...] Changes in the rates and sources of marine primary production over time are difficult to document owing to the absence of direct estimates of past productivity. Here, I use the maximum body sizes of the largest species in each of 23 tropical [...] The circumstances of the evolution of hypsodonty (= high-crowned teeth) are a bone of contention. Hypsodonty is usually linked to diet abrasiveness, either from siliceous phytoliths (monocotyledons) or from grit (dusty environments). However, any [...] Fire may have been a crucial component in the evolution of the Cape flora of South Africa, a region characterized by outstanding levels of species richness and endemism. However, there is, to date, no critical assessment of the age of the modern fire [...] |
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