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Evolutionary biology

Crowning glories

Nature volume 417, pages 498–499 (2002)Cite this article

The evolutionary trend towards high-crowned teeth in European herbivores during the Miocene was, it seems, driven by the geographically common groups, and not rare ones. That conclusion has broader implications.

The evolution of high-crowned teeth is one of the classic stories of evolutionary biology, but the object lesson of the story might be different from that found in the textbooks. In studying past environments, the rare and more specialized animals often get the most attention. In their paper on page 538 of this issue, however, Jernvall and Fortelius1 show that a few, common, regionally widespread species can drive major trends, yielding more information than is usually recognized.

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References

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  1. Department of Geology, Illinois State Museum, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield, 62703, Illinois, USA

    Jessica M. Theodor

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  1. Jessica M. Theodor
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Correspondence to Jessica M. Theodor.

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Theodor, J. Crowning glories. Nature 417, 498–499 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/417498a

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