The integration of fossils, phylogeny, and geochronology has resulted in an increasingly
well-resolved timetable of evolution. Life appears to have taken root before the earliest …

Discrete character-taxon matrices are increasingly being used in an attempt to understand
the pattern and tempo of morphological evolution; however, methodological sophistication …

The origin of phenotypic diversity among higher clades is one of the most fundamental
topics in evolutionary biology. However, due to methodological challenges, few studies have …

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of different groups of organisms provides insight into
how life originated and diversified on Earth. Phylogenetic trees are commonly used to …

The largest known dinosaurs weighed at least 20 million times as much as the smallest,
indicating exceptional phenotypic divergence. Previous studies have focused on extreme …

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the science of the history of life.
Paleobiologists bring many analytical tools to bear in interpreting the fossil record and the …

Echinoderms are a major group (phylum) of invertebrate animals with a rich fossil record
stretching back to the Cambrian period, approximately 518 million years ago. While all …

The history of life as documented by the fossil record encompasses evolutionary
diversifications at scales ranging from the Ediacaran–Cambrian explosion of animal life and …

Phylogenomic and paleontological data constitute complementary resources for unraveling
the phylogenetic relationships and divergence times of lineages, yet few studies have …

Simpson's “early burst” model of adaptive radiation was intended to explain the early
proliferation of morphological and functional variation in diversifying clades. Yet, despite …