Evidence of Parallel Evolution in the Dental Elements of Sweetognathus Conodonts

Date
2021-06-25
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Abstract

Disentangling patterns of diversification throughout Earth’s history is fundamental in understanding the mechanisms that lead to adaptive radiations. The conodont genus Sweetognathus provides a unique opportunity to test the evolutionary patterns that may have facilitated their adaptive radiations during the Permian. These patterns of evolution are tested by comparing the phenotypic trajectories between species pairs in lineages of Sweetognathus conodonts. Phenotypes are quantified by using geometric morphometric techniques on 3-dimensional computer tomographic models of each specimen’s platform dental element. Ecological metrics and agglomerative hierarchal clustering methods are then applied to understand some of the potential mechanisms behind the observed evolutionary patterns. Our study found evidence for morphological parallelisms and recurrent species pairs between Sweetognathus populations throughout the Permian. Future work on Sweetognathus evolution should focus on disentangling some of the evolutionary processes responsible for the observed patterns.

Description
Keywords
Parallel evolution, Conodont trophic networks
Citation
Petryshen, W. S. (2021). Evidence of Parallel Evolution in the Dental Elements of Sweetognathus Conodonts (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.