Team Publications

Publications by the members of the Paleosynthesis Team and Scientific Advisory Board

85 to 90 of 504

20JUN 2024
Team Publications
Levels of selection and macroevolution
“The fitness of groups is often considered to be the average fitness among constituent members. This assumption has been useful for developing models of multilevel selection, but its uncritical adoption has held back our understanding of how multilevel selection actually works in nature. If group fitness is only equal to mean member fitness, then it […]
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03MAY 2024
Team Publications
Plant macrofossils from the Rhaetian of Einberg
“The plant macrofossil assemblage from a Rhaetian succession of a quarry near Einberg (Franconia, Germany), of which ferns, cycadophytes and ginkgophytes had been published earlier, comprises two conifer species (Schizolepidopsis liasokeuperianus and Stachyotaxus septentrionalis) that are unambiguously identifiable. Though both occur in small numbers of specimens only, a large number of specimens of the enigmatic […]“The plant macrofossil assemblage from a Rhaetian succession of a quarry near Einberg (Franconia, Germany), of which ferns, cycadophytes and ginkgophytes had been published earlier, comprises two conifer species (Schizolepidopsis liasokeuperianus and Stachyotaxus septentrionalis) that are unambiguously identifiable. Though both occur in small numbers of specimens only, a large number of specimens of the enigmatic […]
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30APR 2024
Team Publications
The importance of migratory drop-off
“Seasonal migration is an underappreciated driver of animal diversification. Changes in migratory behaviour may favour the establishment of sedentary founder populations and promote speciation if there is sufficient reproductive isolation between sedentary and migratory populations. From a systematic literature review, we here quantify the role of migratory drop-off—the loss of migratory behaviour—in promoting speciation in […]“Seasonal migration is an underappreciated driver of animal diversification. Changes in migratory behaviour may favour the establishment of sedentary founder populations and promote speciation if there is sufficient reproductive isolation between sedentary and migratory populations. From a systematic literature review, we here quantify the role of migratory drop-off—the loss of migratory behaviour—in promoting speciation in […]
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30APR 2024
Team Publications
Levels of selection and macroevolution
“The fitness of groups is often considered to be the average fitness among constituent members. This assumption has been useful for developing models of multilevel selection, but its uncritical adoption has held back our understanding of how multilevel selection actually works in nature. If group fitness is only equal to mean member fitness, then it […]
Read more about Levels of selection and macroevolution
05APR 2024
Team Publications
Mechanistic phylodynamic models do not provide conclusive evidence
“Phylodynamic models can be used to estimate diversification trajectories from time-calibrated phylogenies. Here we apply two such models to phylogenies of non-avian dinosaurs, a clade whose evolutionary history has been widely debated. Although some authors have suggested that the clade experienced a decline in diversity, potentially starting millions of years before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, […]“Phylodynamic models can be used to estimate diversification trajectories from time-calibrated phylogenies. Here we apply two such models to phylogenies of non-avian dinosaurs, a clade whose evolutionary history has been widely debated. Although some authors have suggested that the clade experienced a decline in diversity, potentially starting millions of years before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, […]
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02APR 2024
Team Publications
Slit-bearing gastropods in the Jane Longstaff Collection
“Natural history museums house numerous previously undescribed species and unknown information hidden in their collections. We describe lower Carboniferous slit-bearing gastropods (order Pleurotomariida, subclass Vetigastropoda; and family Goniasmatidae, subclass Caenogastropoda) from previously unreported gastropod collections made by Jane Longstaff (Jane Donald), one of the pioneering paleontologists of Paleozoic gastropods in the late nine-teenth and early […]“Natural history museums house numerous previously undescribed species and unknown information hidden in their collections. We describe lower Carboniferous slit-bearing gastropods (order Pleurotomariida, subclass Vetigastropoda; and family Goniasmatidae, subclass Caenogastropoda) from previously unreported gastropod collections made by Jane Longstaff (Jane Donald), one of the pioneering paleontologists of Paleozoic gastropods in the late nine-teenth and early […]
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