Regional integration of evidence for evolution in the Silurian Pentamerus‐Pentameroides lineage

Abstract

Under ideal conditions, the stratophenetic test for phyletic gradualism in fossil lineages requires nearly continuous samples of time-specific populations through rock sequences representing geologically significant periods of time. Shifting environments account for one source of ‘imperfection’ in the local rock record. Few species are sufficiently eurytopic to survive changing environments in a given region over a long time span. Where marine fossils are involved, independently correlated sea-level curves may be used to patch together segments of stratigraphic sections from different regions that collectively encompass the uninterrupted environment of the target species. In the Lower Silurian of Iowa, stratigraphic gaps among test samples for phyletic gradualism in pentamerid brachiopods occur wherever pentamerid communities are succeeded by deeper water stricklandiid communities or by shallower-water coral-algal communities. Correlation of sea-level curves indicates that water depth was consistently shallower in the northern Great Lakes area. Usually when stricklandiid communities replaced a pentamerid community in Iowan seas, contemporaneous pentamerid communities replaced a coral-algal community in Michigan or Ontario seas. Temporal meshing of samples from Iowa and the northern Great Lakes area (based on congruent Stricklandia and Eocoelia lineage zones) supports the hypothesis that Pentamerus oblongus evolved to Pentameroides subrectus through a gradual narrowing and loss of divergence in its outer plates. A transitional morphotype between the two genera (from the Lower Silurian of Alabama) is illustrated. □Phyletic gradualism, punctuated equilibria, Brachiopoda, Pentamerida, Silurian, North America.