Geology 105 - Paleontology
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Functional Morphology

Reading: Chapter 7

You can skim the sections on Morphospaces and Ecological Niches, and on Diversity and Disparity - we won't be using these. The section on Functional Constraints reviews some material we already covered in Natural Selection.

Background

Terms:

Key Concepts and Questions:

1. How do we know what ancient organisms used specific structures for?

• Find an analogy among living organisms.
• Analyze the biomechanics of the organism
• Build a physical model
• Build a mathematical model

For each case study in the chapter, identify which of these four methods of analysis are used.

Archeocyathids:

Clams:

Pterosaurs:

Saber-Toothed Cat:

 

2. Representing morphology in theoretical morphospace

One way to analyze the shapes organisms have is to compare the range of actual shapes with the range of possible shapes.

Molluscs:

What are the mathematical constraints of mollusc shell formation? Define each one in your own words and give an example of what a shell would look like with a low and high value of each variable:

Variable	Definition	Low Value	High Value
W
D
T

Now examine Fig. 7.3. Why are there some areas of the graph where there are no organisms?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assessment

1. Functional morphology

You should be able to:

• describe the four methods of analyzing structures and cite an example for each
• given an example of a puzzling structure in an ancient organism, be able to suggest at least two different approaches for investigating the structure.

2. Theoretical morphology

You should be able to:

• define W, D, and T
• given a shell, describe the values of W,D,and T for that shell and place it on a graph of W, D, and T.
• explain why some areas of the W-D-T graph are not occupied among living or extinct organisms