The genus Quercus is among the most widespread and species‐rich tree genera in the
northern hemisphere. The extraordinary species diversity in America and Asia together with …

The integration of fossils, phylogeny, and geochronology has resulted in an increasingly
well-resolved timetable of evolution. Life appears to have taken root before the earliest …

Heritable variation is a prerequisite for evolutionary change, but the relevance of genetic
constraints on macroevolutionary timescales is debated. By using two datasets on fossil and …

INTRODUCTION Individual processes that shape geographical patterns of biodiversity are
increasingly understood, but their complex interactions on broad spatial and temporal scales …

Phenotypic plasticity is the capacity for an individual genotype to produce different
phenotypes in response to environmental variation. Most traits are plastic, but the degree to …

Several evolutionary theories predict that rates of morphological change should be
positively associated with the rate at which new species arise. For example, the theory of …

Abstract George Gaylord Simpson famously postulated that much of life's diversity originated
as adaptive radiations—more or less simultaneous divergences of numerous lines from a …

Sexual and asexual reproduction are found throughout the plant and animal kingdoms.
Asexual reproduction has its advantages, chief among which is that it does not require the …

Recent studies have documented rates of evolution of ecologically important phenotypes
sufficiently fast that they have the potential to impact the outcome of ecological interactions …

For over half a century, it has been known that the rate of morphological evolution appears
to vary with the time frame of measurement. Rates of microevolutionary change, measured …