Linked Life Data

19204990

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/19204990

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2009-2-19
pubmed:abstractText
Fossil organisms offer our only direct insight into how the distinctive body plans of extant organisms were assembled. However, realizing the potential evolutionary significance of fossils can be hampered by controversy over their interpretation. Here, as a guide to evaluating palaeontological debates, we outline the process and pitfalls of fossil interpretation. The physical remains of controversial fossils should be reconstructed before interpreting homologies, and choice of interpretative model should be explicit and justified. Extinct taxa lack characters diagnostic of extant clades because the characters had not yet evolved, because of secondary loss, or because they have rotted away. The latter, if not taken into account, will lead to the spurious assignment of fossils to basally branching clades. Conflicting interpretations of fossils can often be resolved by considering all the steps in the process of anatomical analysis and phylogenetic placement, although we must accept that some fossil organisms are simply too incompletely preserved for their evolutionary significance to be realized.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
1521-1878
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
31
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
178-89
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2009
pubmed:articleTitle
Distinguishing heat from light in debate over controversial fossils.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. phil.donoghue@bristol.ac.uk
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Review, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't