Search results for "Theoretical morphology"
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David Malcolm Raup (1933-2015) at the starting point of a new paradigm for Palaeontology
2020
This is a tribute to the late David Malcolm Raup, one of the major palaeontologists of the second half of the 20 th century. In addition, it is a critical review of his outstanding contributions, mainly in the field of theoretical palaeontology: quantitative modelling, the introduction of probabilistic methods in palaeontology, as well as his great imagination to use techniques from other fields, such as insurance actuary. After a general outline of his youth, I present a general depiction of the main topics of his research as a palaeobiologist: morphology, the structure of the fossil record, evolution, and extinction. He covered areas ranging from the theoretical morphology of coiled shell…
Theoretical morphology of tetrapod skull networks
2014
Abstract Network models of the tetrapod skull in which nodes represent bones and links represent sutures have recently offered new insights into the structural constraints underlying the evolutionary reduction of bone number in the tetrapod skull, known as Williston's Law. Here, we have built null network model-derived generative morphospaces of the tetrapod skull using random, preferential attachment, and geometric proximity growth rules. Our results indicate that geometric proximity is the best null model to explain the disparity of skull structures under two structural constraints: bilateral symmetry and presence of unpaired bones. The analysis of the temporal occupation of this morphosp…