The Fossil Record and Evolution: Comparing Cladistic and Paleontologic Evidence for Vertebrate History
The Fossil Record and Evolution: Comparing Cladistic and Paleontologic Evidence for Vertebrate History
复制标题
化石记录和进化：比较脊椎动物历史的分支和古生物学证据
作者：
M. Norell;M. Novacek
化石记录提供了灭绝生命的唯一直接证据，因此在进化模式的考量中占有突出地位。但化石记录的不完整性质也得到了强调，因为有观点认为，化石在恢复基于现有分类群的系统发育历史方面只起到了次要作用。尽管这些批评最近得到了反驳，但对于化石记录和系统发育之间的对应关系，人们并没有普遍的理解。对最近发表的研究进行的一项经验调查表明，没有任何基础可以假设化石的地层产状总是提供系统发育的准确反映。然而，我们对分类群样本的调查显示，年龄和支序之间有正相关的趋势，因此，系统发育模式和古生物记录之间有一定程度的对应关系。
The fossil record offers the only direct evidence of extinct life and thus has figured prominently in considerations of evolutionary patterns. But the incomplete nature of the fossil record has also been emphasized in arguments that fossils play only a secondary role in the recovery of phylogenetic histories based on extant taxa. Although these criticisms recently have been countered, there is no general understanding of the correspondence between the fossil record and phylogeny. An empirical survey of recently published studies suggests no basis for assuming that the stratigraphic occurrence of fossils always provides a precise reflection of phylogeny. Nevertheless, our survey of a sample of taxa shows a tendency for positive correlation between age and clade rank and, hence, a degree of correspondence between phylogenetic pattern and the paleontologic record.