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ASSUMPTIONS AFFECT CONCLUSIONS
Pagel MD, Harvey PH. 1989. Comparative methods for examining adaptation depend on evolutionary models. Folia Primatologia 53:203-220.
Summary. The authors state that different methods of studying evolutionary patterns and constructing phylogenetic trees depend on different models of how evolution occurs. This concept is applied to the process of proposing ancestral states, testing for coevolution of two or more characters, and statistical comparisons of continuous characters. This paper emphasizes the importance of implicit assumptions on methodology and therefore on conclusions.
Cox KG. 1989. The role of mantle plumes in the development of continental drainage patterns. Nature 342:873-877.
Summary. This paper extends and refines previous suggestions that link flood basalt volcanism, hot mantle plumes and continental drainage patterns. The basic idea is that mantle hot spots produce hot plumes that rise toward the surface, spreading laterally near the surface. If the plume rises below a continent, uplift may result, producing a dome. Fracturing of the dome may result in rifts, flood basalt volcanism, and a characteristic pattern of continental drainage. Specific examples in India, Brazil and southern Africa are described.
MOLECULAR CLOCK OR FOSSIL RECORD?
Easteal S. 1990. The pattern of mammalian evolution and the relative rate of molecular evolution. Genetics 124:165-173.
Summary. Most of the orders of living mammals first appear around the same stratigraphic level in the fossil record. Evolutionists have generally interpreted this to indicate that the various orders arose about the same time, in a kind of explosive evolution. But all orders are not equidistant according to molecular criteria. This has been interpreted as evidence against the hypothesis that mutations occur at a generally constant rate through evolutionary time (the molecular clock hypothesis). The author of this paper prefers the molecular clock hypothesis over evidence from the fossil record, and concludes that molecular differences indicate that mammal orders arose at different times, but the fossil record is too incomplete to indicate the order in which they arose.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF PLANT FAMILIES?
Archie JW. 1989. Phylogenies of plant families: a demonstration of phylogenetic randomness in DNA sequence data derived from proteins. Evolution 43:1796-1800.
Summary. Archie examines the results of a study of phylogenetic relationships among nine plant families based on a set of DNA sequences derived from protein sequences for three proteins. Archie concludes that the DNA sequences used do not contain phylogenetic information, and suggests procedures for identifying whether other such sequences are useful in studying phylogeny.
PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY AND PLATE TECTONICS
Jaeger J-J, Courtillot V, Tapponnier P. 1989. Paleontological view of the ages of the Deccan traps, the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, and the India-Asia collision. Geology 17:316-319.
Summary. The Deccan traps are flood basalts covering a large area of India. Paleomagnetic dating indicates the volcanism that produced the Deccan traps occurred across the boundary separating the Cretaceous from the Tertiary. Fossils from below the basalts are similar to those found in beds among the lava flows, which is interpreted as evidence against rapid mass extinction. Similarities of fossils from beds among the lava flows and from Asian deposits are interpreted as evidence that the Indian plate collided with Asia much earlier than previously thought, probably close to the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. If so, the intra-continental shortening caused by the collision could be as much as 4000 km.
Briggs JC. 1989. The historic biogeography of India: isolation or contact? Systematic Zoology 38:322-332.
Summary. Maps showing continental movements typically show India located on the north side of Antarctica, between southeast Africa and western Australia, until about t