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Evolution__3rd_Edition

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21Rates of <strong>Evolution</strong><br />

E volutionary rates can be measured quantitatively for<br />

a character within a lineage, and we begin by seeing<br />

how this is conventionally done. We then look at a large<br />

compilation of over 500 such measurements and ask whether<br />

fossil evolutionary rates fit in with the theory of population<br />

genetics. Punctuated equilibrium is an influential modern<br />

idea about evolutionary rates in fossils and we discuss the<br />

theory, how to test it, and the evidence for and against it. We<br />

finish with two other measures of evolutionary rates: rates<br />

of change in arbitrarily coded character states b which we<br />

illustrate by a classic study of a living fossil (the lungfish) b<br />

and taxonomic rates, which are obtained from survivorship<br />

curves for fossil taxa.<br />

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