Future-proofing the Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminifera phylogeny of Aze & others (2011)

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.

Genetic and morphological divergence in the warm-water planktonic foraminifera genus Globigerinoides

“…Similar to previous studies [29,30] our results show that CT-scanning offers a promising avenue for ontogenetic analysis and resolve phylogenetic relationships among extinct species of planktonic foraminifera [104]. We recognize that we cannot draw firm conclusions from our analysis because of the limited amount of specimen analyzed, and stress the need for replicate analysis to confirm our results.…”

Systematic taxonomy of theTrilobatus sacculiferplexus and descendantGlobigerinoidesella fistulosa(planktonic foraminifera)

“…3). This has led to difficulties in assessing broader evolutionary relationships and bioevents, as morphospecies populations often grade into a distinct population rather than indicating any clear cladogenetic branching (Pearson 1998;Aze et al 2011;Fordham et al 2018). Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera have an excellent fossil record, which in some respects is a double-edged sword as morphological clines are particularly apparent and make morphospecies delimitation challenging.…”

NSB (Neptune Sandbox Berlin): An expanded and improved database of marine planktonic microfossil data and deep-sea stratigraphy

“…Since the creation of the Neptune database in 1990 to the beginning of 2019, 112 scientific publications have been written about or used the database (including 11 book chapters, 6 PhD theses, and 81 articles in ISI-listed journals; see Figure 14), with themes varying from paleobiology (e.g., Rabosky and Sorrhanus, 2009;Hannisdal et al 2017), paleoceanography (e.g., Cermenõ et al 2015), marine sedimentology (e.g., Muttoni and Kent 2007), theoretical biology (e.g., Lewitus and Morlon 2017), and systematics (e.g., Fordham et al 2018). A complete list of publications using NSB or about NSB can be found at http://nsb-mfn-berlin.de/history.html.…”