Phenotypic Evolution in Fossil Species: Pattern and Process

Abstract

Since Darwin, scientists have looked to the fossil record with the hope of using it to document how the phenotypes of species change over substantial periods of time. How best to interpret this record has been controversial, but empirical and methodological advances have resolved at least two issues about pattern: (a) directional transformations are seldom sustained over geological timescales, and (b) net rates of morphological change in fossil species are usually quite slow. Considerable uncertainty remains, however, about the processes responsible for these patterns, but most fruitful explanations use the framework of adaptive landscapes to consider the role of natural selection and other processes. An additional, unresolved issue is the claim that most phenotypic change is associated with speciation. A variety of methods, using data from both fossil and extant species, have supported such a link, at least in some clades and traits, but its prevalence and underlying mechanism remain unresolved.