Re: (was marine reptile McMenu)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Ah, thanks.

1988 is old... could be difficult to get, though this journal ought to be 
rather easy...

> Patterns of Vascular Plant Diversification in the Fossil
> Record: Proof and Conjecture.

Proof? I thought of all scientists only historical linguists still talked of 
"proof"... :-S

> There is a lot of potential bias due to increasing morphological 
> complexity (allowing separation into more morphospecies), founder 
> morphologies (leading to diversity among earlier forms being described in 
> higher ranks) and novel adaptations (angiosperms sometimes speciate soley 
> in order to better adapt to a new pollinator). Of course, these changes 
> themselves might also restructure global ecosystems and background 
> evolution, extinction and radiation patterns.

I don't see how that would be connected to "genus lifespans".

> I personally suspect that increasing invasibility of ecosystems (globally) 
> due to the Angiosperm radiation, may have been a major driving
> factor in faunal turnover (but I have yet to think of a good way to test 
> this).

What do you mean by increasing invasability?