Neither Williston nor Dollo: mandibular complexity from stem tetrapods to modern amphibians
Emily C. Watt,
Ryan N. Felice,
Anjali Goswami
Abstract:Directional trends in evolution have long captured the attention of biologists, and are particularly interesting when they reflect fundamental developmental processes that underlie morphological change. Here, we apply deep time data and a phylogenetic comparative framework to assess two fundamental “laws” – Williston’s law of phenotypic simplification and Dollo’s law of irreversibility – in the tetrapod mandible, a structure that has sustained the same primary function of feeding for nearly 400 million years. … Show more
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