• Other Authors: Dr Barry Fordham (isOwnedBy)
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Australian National University
• Subjects: Palaeontology (incl. Palynology); EARTH SCIENCES; GEOLOGY; Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis; BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY; Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy); Palaeoclimatology; PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE; evolutionary tree; phylogeny; timescale calibration; data visualisation; morphospecies; lineages; planktonic foraminifera; stratophenetics; biostratigraphy; macroevolution; TimeScale Creator; relational database; Cenozoic; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/fordham-b-g-published-article/1355384; https://datacommons.anu.edu.au/DataCommons/item/anudc:5530; https://doi.org/10.25911/5b8df50c1f2bd

Article Abstract - The unique macroevolutionary dataset of Aze & others has been transferred onto the TimeScale Creator visualisation platform while, as much as practicable, preserving the original unrevised content of its morphospecies and lineage evolutionary trees. This is a “Corrected Version” (not a revision), which can serve as an on-going historical case example because it is now updatable with future time scales. Both macroevolutionary and biostratigraphic communities are now equipped with an enduring phylogenetic database of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminiferal morphospecies and lineages for which both graphics and content can be visualised together. Key to maintaining the currency of the trees has been specification of time scales for sources of stratigraphic ranges; these scales then locate the range dates within the calibration series. Some ranges or their sources have undergone mostly minor corrections or amendments. Links between lineage and morphospecies trees have been introduced to improve consistency and transparency in timing within the trees. Also, Aze & others’ dual employment of morphospecies and lineage concepts is further elaborated here, given misunderstandings that have ensued. Features displayed on the trees include options for line styles for additional categories for range extensions or degrees of support for ancestor–descendant proposals; these have been applied to a small number of instances as an encouragement to capture more nuanced data in the future. In addition to labeling of eco- and morpho-groups on both trees, genus labels can be attached to the morphospecies tree to warn of polyphyletic morphogenera, and the lineage codes have been decoded to ease their recognition. However, it is the mouse-over pop-ups that provide the greatest opportunity to embed supporting information in the trees. They include details for stratigraphic ranges and their recalibration steps, positions relative to the standard planktonic-foraminiferal zonation, and applications as datums, as well as mutual listings between morphospecies and lineages which ease the tracing of their interrelated contents. The elaboration of the original dataset has been captured in a relational database, which can be considered a resource in itself, and, through queries and programming, serves to generate the TimeScale Creator datapacks. The Aze & others (2011) phylogeny of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminifera has proved an important macroevolutionary dataset: especially because it proposed evolutionary trees of both morphospecies and lineages for a large taxonomic group. Having trees for both concepts for the same group provides a unique opportunity to examine macroevolutionary phenomena conjointly from both morphospatial and phylogenetic perspectives. The utility of these trees are further enhanced because the group chosen occupies the entire Cenozoic Era, has the richest and most intensively studied fossil record of any group, and is a primary group for Cenozoic biostratigraphic zonations and paleoceanographic proxies. However, the 2011 work has remained static with regard to subsequent advances, including timescale updates and phylogenetic knowledge. This is starting to impact on its currency for ongoing macroevolutionary analysis. In addition, the biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic communities have made only minor use of the Aze & others study mainly because positioning it within Earth history contexts is not straightforward. The work’s unique employment of both morphospecies and lineages has also been misunderstood by some macroevolutionary analysts. We have addressed these issues by transferring the Aze & others dataset onto TimeScale Creator, the data-visualisation platform used for the last decade and a half to integrate and publish the international Geological Time Scale (GTS). This has allowed the trees and their contents to be calibrated through the series of time-scale upgrades encompassed by the dataset, making it current and ready for future time scales. In so doing the dataset has been improved and enhanced, while preserving its historical integrity (but also positioned for subsequent versions), and a number of lessons have been learnt to guide future work. By introducing an evolutionary-tree function into the TimeScale Creator platform, the dataset contents are now accessible visually on the tree, via enhanced graphical devices and labeling and, especially, by presentation of taxonomic, biostratigraphic, paleoceanographic, and other information in pop-ups linked to individual taxa displayed on the trees. This makes the internals of the database transparent to the research community, including details of age calibrations on which the trees, and their application, depends. But the database contents have also been corrected, enlarged, and improved, including linking of morphospecies and lineages to ensure internal consistency and to enable sharing with the research community. Both macroevolutionary and biostratigraphic communities are now equipped with an enduring phylogenetic database of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminiferal morphospecies and lineages for which both graphics and content can be visualised together. 7. 1.38 MB.