10.5061/DRYAD.8GD1653
Plotnick, Roy E.
University of Illinois at Chicago
Wagner, Peter
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Data from: The greatest hits of all time: the histories of dominant genera
in the fossil record
Dryad
dataset
2018
Common
2018-03-28T12:36:51Z
2018-03-28T12:36:51Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.15
3444424 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Certain taxa are noticeably common within collections, widely distributed,
and frequently long-lived. We have examined these dominant genera as
compared to rarer genera, with a focus on their temporal histories. Using
occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, we determined which genera
belonging to six target groups ranked among the most common within each of
49 temporal bins based on occurrences. The turnover among these dominant
taxa from bin-to-bin was then determined for each of these groups and all
six groups pooled. Although dominant genera are only a small fraction of
all genera, the patterns of turnover mimic those seen in much larger
compilations of total biodiversity. We also found that differences in
patterns of turnover at the top ranks among the higher taxa reflect
previously documented comparison of overall turnover among these classes.
Both dominant and non-dominant genera exhibit on average symmetrical
patterns of rise and fall between first and last appearances. Dominant
genera rarely begin at high ranks, but nevertheless tend to be more common
when they first appear than non-dominant genera. Moreover, dominant genera
rarely are in the Top 20 when they last appear, but still typically occupy
more localities than non-dominant genera occupy in their last interval.
The mechanism(s) that produce dominant genera remain unclear. Nearly half
of dominant genera are the type genus of a family or subfamily. This is
consistent with a simple model of morphological and phylogenetic
diversification and sampling.
Plotnick & Wagner SupplementaryTwo supplementary tables and three
supplementary figures.Supplemental ReferencesSupplemental
referencesSupplemental Table 1Supplemental Table 1 in .csv
format.Supplemental Table 2Supplemental Table 2 in .csv format