The morphological diversification of carnivores in North America

From: Paleobiology | Date: January 1, 2005| Author: | Copyright information

Abstract.-The evolutionary history of a clade has traditionally been studied through phylogenetics, and taxonomic diversity has been used as a crude proxy for morphological diversity. However, morphological diversification-beyond counting taxa-can provide a very different view of a clade's evolutionary history and allows the investigation of patterns and timing of morphological evolution.

In this paper I use dentition to document the pattern of morphological and taxonomic diversification of Carnivoramorpha and mammalian meat eaters in North America. Using the dentition permits ecological ...

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