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Plot Sepkoski's evolutionary fauna using base R

Source: R/sepkoski_curve_base.R
sepkoski_curve_base.Rd

This function plots Sepkoski's evolutionary fauna (Sepkoski, 1981), using the Sepkoski (2002) fossil marine animal genera compendium (i.e. the included sepkoski dataset). No changes have been made to any taxonomic names in this dataset. However, first and last appearance intervals have been updated to stages from the International Geological Time Scale 2023. As such, minor differences may be observed to previously published plots. See interval_table for interval definitions.

Usage

sepkoski_curve_base(plot_args = NULL, axis_args = NULL, legend_args = NULL)

Arguments

plot_args

list. A named list of optional arguments that are passed directly to graphics::plot(). If NULL (default), a default list of arguments are used.

axis_args

list. A named list of optional arguments that are passed directly to palaeoverse::axis_geo(). If NULL (default), a default list of arguments are used. If FALSE, no axis is added.

legend_args

list. A named list of optional arguments that are passed directly to graphics::legend(). If NULL (default), a default list of arguments are used. If FALSE, no legend is added.

Value

No return value. Function is used to plot Sepkoski's curve with user-defined arguments.

Details

Taxa are assigned to evolutionary fauna (EF) categories as follows:

  • Cambrian EF: Trilobita, Polychaeta, Tergomya ("Monoplacophora"), Inarticulata, and Hyolithomorpha.

  • Paleozoic EF: Anthozoa, Articulata, Asteroidea, Cephalopoda, Crinoidea, Ostracoda, Ophiuroidea, Somasteroidea, and Stenolaemata.

  • Modern EF: Bivalvia, Chondrichthyes, Demospongia, Echinoidea, Gastropoda, Gymnolaemata, Malacostraca, and Osteichthyes.

References

Sepkoski, J. J. (1981). A factor analytic description of the Phanerozoic marine fossil record. Paleobiology, 7(1), pp. 36–53.

Sepkoski, J. J. (2002). A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology, 363, pp. 1–560.

Examples

# Plot curve with default arguments
sepkoski_curve_base()


# Plot curve with user-defined arguments
sepkoski_curve_base(plot_args = list(main = "Sepkoski's Curve"),
                    axis_args = list(intervals = list("stages", "periods"),
                                    lab = FALSE),
                    legend_args = list(bty = "o"))