Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T22:01:43.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Apparent prolonged evolutionary stasis in the middle Eocene hoofed mammal Hyopsodus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Robert M. West
Robert M. West*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W. Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The stratophenetic approach to phylogeny reconstruction, developed in numerous recent papers by Gingerich, has its strongest data base in comprehensive collections from early Eocene rocks in the Big Horn Basin of northwestern Wyoming. Other examples have been criticised for lack of well-documented collection data, making suitable testing of stratophenetic interpretations of evolutionary modes virtually impossible.

Study of Hyopsodus from the middle Eocene Bridger Formation of southwestern Wyoming provides new collection data. Adequate stratigraphic documentation is available, so Gingerich's graphical presentation can be essentially duplicated. In contrast to the complex branching pattern Gingerich interpreted from his data, Bridger Formation Hyopsodus data seems to show little size change through approximately one million years. This stasis or equilibrium condition, which is considered rare by Bookstein et al. (1978), is the only well developed pattern in Bridger Hyopsodus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Summer 1979 , pp. 252 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Bookstein, F. L., Gingerich, P. D., and Kluge, A. G. 1978. Hierarchical linear modeling of the tempo and mode of evolution. Paleobiology. 4:120–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazin, C. L. 1968. A study of the Eocene condylarthran mammal Hyopsodus. Smithson. Misc. Coll. 153:1–90.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. and Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology. 3:115–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1974a. Stratigraphic record of early Eocene Hyopsodus and the geometry of mammalian phylogeny. Nature. 248:107–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1974b. Size variability of the teeth in living mammals and the diagnosis of closely related sympatric fossil species. J. Paleontol. 48:895–903.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1975. New North American Plesiadapidae (Mammalia, Primates) and a biostratigraphic zonation of the middle and upper Paleocene. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol., Univ. Mich. 24:135–148.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1976a. Paleontology and phylogeny: patterns of evolution at the species level in early Tertiary mammals. Am. J. Sci. 276:1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1976b. Cranial anatomy and evolution of early Tertiary Plesiadapidae (Mammalia, Primates). Papers on Paleontol., Mus. Paleontol., Univ. Mich. 15:1–141.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1977a. Patterns of evolution in the mammalian fossil record. Pp. 469–500. In: Hallam, A., ed. Patterns of Evolution. Elsevier; Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1977b. Radiation of Eocene Adapidae in Europe. Geobios, Mem. Spec. 1:165–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1979. Phytogeny of middle Eocene Adapidae (Mammalia, Primates) in North America: Smilodectes and Notharctus. J. Paleontol. 53:153–163.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. and Simons, E. L. 1977. Systematics, phytogeny, and evolution of early Eocene Adapidae (Mammalia, Primates) in North America. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol., Univ. Mich. 24:245–279.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1909. The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, middle Eocene. Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 9:291–567.Google Scholar
McKenna, M. C., Engelmann, G. F., and Barghoorn, S. F. 1977. Review of Cranial anatomy and evolution of Early Tertiary Plesiadapidae (Mammalia, Primates), by Philip D. Gingerich. Syst. Zool. 26:233–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R. M. 1973. Geology and mammalian paleontology of the New Fork–Big Sandy area. Sublette County, Wyoming. Fieldiana Geol. 29:1–193.Google Scholar
West, R. M., McKenna, M. C., Black, C. C., Bown, T. M., Dawson, M. R., Golz, D. J., Lillegraven, J. A., Savage, D. E. and Turnbull, W. D.MS. Eocene chronology of North America.Google Scholar