Comparing patterns of evolution: larval and adult life history stages and ribosomal RNA of post-Palaeozoic echinoids

A total-evidence approach to the phylogeny of 29 extant echinoids has been taken, combined data from larval morphology, adult morphology, small subunit rRNA complete gene sequence and large subunit rRNA partial gene sequence: a total of 176 morphological and 121 molecular phylogenetically informative characters. Also included are 13 extinct taxa for which only adult morphology is known. Patterns of morphological evolution of larval and adult stages were compared by optimizing character sets onto the total evidence tree and assigning each character transformation to a branch. It is demonstrated that larval and adult morphological evolution has proceeded in a mosaic-like fashion over the last 250 Ma. -from Authors

Duke Scholars

Author Gregory Allan Wray Biology