EARLY BURSTS OF BODY SIZE AND SHAPE EVOLUTION ARE RARE IN COMPARATIVE DATA: EARLY BURSTS OF EVOLUTION ARE RARE
Abstract
George Gaylord Simpson famously postulated that much of life's diversity originated as adaptive radiations-more or less simultaneous divergences of numerous lines from a single ancestral adaptive type. However, identifying adaptive radiations has proven difficult due to a lack of broad-scale comparative datasets. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative data on body size and shape in a diversity of animal clades to test a key model of adaptive radiation, in which initially rapid morphological evolution is followed by relative stasis. We compared the fit of this model to both single selective peak and random walk models. We found little support for the early-burst model of adaptive radiation, whereas both other models, particularly that of selective peaks, were commonly supported. In addition, we found that the net rate of morphological evolution varied inversely with clade age. The youngest clades appear to evolve most rapidly because long-term change typically does not attain the amount of divergence predicted from rates measured over short time scales. Across our entire analysis, the dominant pattern was one of constraints shaping evolution continually through time rather than rapid evolution followed by stasis. We suggest that the classical model of adaptive radiation, where morphological evolution is initially rapid and slows through time, may be rare in comparative data.
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In a meta-analysis of 49 studies of body size and 39 studies of morphology in a range of invertebrate and vertebrate clades, only two studies supported the 'early burst' model.
“In a meta-analysis of 49 studies of body size and 39 studies of morphology in a range of invertebrate and vertebrate clades, only two studies supported the ‘early burst’ model [37].”
From Novelty and Innovation in the History of Life (2015) · cites this paper as [37]
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- Authors
- Harmon, L. J., Losos, J. B., Jonathan Davies, T., Gillespie, R. G., Gittleman, J. L., Bryan Jennings, W., Kozak, K. H., McPeek, M. A., Moreno-Roark, F., Near, T. J., Purvis, A., Ricklefs, R. E., Schluter, D., Schulte II, J. A., Seehausen, O., Sidlauskas, B. L., Torres-Carvajal, O., Weir, J. T., & Mooers, A. Ø.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Clarkson University (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- University of Missouri–St. Louis (US)
- Oregon State University (US)
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Harmon, Luke J
- ORCID
- Venue
- Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-04-29
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- no-no
- ISSN
- 0014-3820 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-5646
- OpenAlex
- W2151541130
- Cited by
- 834
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 75 · 2018: 75 · 2017: 64 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 43 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 23.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
- DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Geometry and Topology › Morphological variations and asymmetry
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- adaptive radiation, morphological evolution, body size, body shape, morphological stasis, clade age, evolutionary rates, phylogenetic comparative analysis, random walks, evolutionary constraints
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Biological, Animals, Biological Evolution, Models, Biological, Phylogeny, Body Size
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