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Accounting for unequal variances in evolutionary trend mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Steve C. Wang
Steve C. Wang*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081. E-mail: scwang@swarthmore.edu
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Extract

Evolutionary trends seemingly abound throughout the history of life. Perhaps the best-known example is Cope's rule, the tendency for lineages to increase in size over time. Other examples include hypothesized trends toward increasing complexity and fitness. What kinds of mechanisms cause such large-scale trends—trends occurring in higher taxa over geological time spans—and how can we effectively visualize them?

Information

Type
Matters of the Record
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Spring 2005, pp. 191 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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