Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Evolutionary radiation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An evolutionary radiation is an increase in taxonomic diversity or morphological disparity, due to adaptive change or the opening of ecospace.[1] Radiations may affect one clade or many, and be rapid or gradual; where they are rapid, and driven by a single lineage's adaptation to their environment, they are termed adaptive radiations.[2]
Contents
1 Examples of evolutionary radiation 2 Types of radiation 3 Evolutionary radiation in the fossil record 4 Recent evolutionary radiations 5 References
Types of radiation
Radiations may be discordant, with either diversity or disparity increasing almost independently of the other, or concordant, where both increase at a similar rate.[1]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_radiation
1/2
2/9/12
of years before. This phenomenon, known as homeomorphy is explained by convergent evolution: when subjected to similar selective pressures, organisms will often evolve similar adaptations.[5] Further examples of rapid evolutionary radiation can be observed among ammonites, which suffered a series of extinctions from which they repeatedly re-diversified; and trilobites which, during the Cambrian, rapidly evolved into a variety of forms occupying many of the niches exploited by crustaceans today. [6][7][8]
References
1. ^ a b Wesley-Hunt, G. D. (2005). "The morphological diversification of carnivores in North America". Paleobiology 31: 3555. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031<0035:TMDOCI>2.0.CO;2 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1666%2F0094-8373%282005%29031%3C0035%3ATMDOCI%3E2.0.CO%3B2) . ISSN 0094-8373 (http://www.worldcat.org/issn/0094-8373) . 2. ^ Schluter, D. (2000). The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation. Oxford University Press. 3. ^ This topic is covered in a very accessible manner in Chapter 11 of Richard Fortey's Life: An Unauthorised Biography (1997) 4. ^ The radiation only suffered one hiccup, when the Permo-Triassic extinction event wiped out many species. 5. ^ Living and Fossil Brachiopods by M. J. S. Rudwick (1970) 6. ^ Aquagenesis, The Origins and Evolution of Life in the Sea by Richard Ellis (2001) 7. ^ Ammonites by Neale Monks & Philip Palmer (2002) 8. ^ Trilobite, Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey (2000) 9. ^ The Cichlid Fishes: Nature's Grand Experiment in Evolution by George Barlow (2002) 10. ^ Palaeos Cenozoic: The Cenozoic Era (http://www.palaeos.com/Cenozoic/Cenozoic.htm)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evolutionary_radiation&oldid=463466056" Categories: Evolutionary biology terminology This page was last modified on 1 December 2011 at 08:10. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_radiation
2/2