Reconstructive evolutionary morphology: Tracing the historical process of modifications of complex systems driven by natural selection through changing ecological conditions

There is general consensus among evolutionary biologists that natural selection drives phenotypic modifications within populations over generational time. How to reconstruct this historical process, however, has been discussed mostly in theoretical terms, and recommendations and explanations on how to translate such theoretical insights into practice are needed. The present study aims at providing a theory‐supported practical guide on how to reconstruct historical evolutionary processes by applying a morphology‐centered approach through a series of interdependent steps of descriptive morphology, functional analysis, ecological observation, integration of paleoecological data, and evolutionary synthesis. Special attention is given to the development of tests regarding the accuracy, closeness to reality, and plausibility of the hypotheses at every level of the reconstructive process. This morphology‐centered approach had its beginnings in the wake of the evolutionary synthesis and is part of the scientifically necessary process of reciprocal testing of hypotheses generated by different methods and data for the reconstruction of evolutionary history.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Journal of morphology

• Publication date

  2024-09-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/jmor.21763PMID 39248452
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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