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Evolutionary mode routinely varies among morphological traits within fossil species lineages

Recent studies have revitalized interest in methods for detecting evolutionary modes in both fossil sequences and phylogenies. Most of these studies examine single size or shape traits, often implicitly assuming that single phenotypic traits are adequate representations of species-level change. We test the validity of this assumption by tallying the frequency with which traits vary in evolutionary mode within fossil species lineages. After fitting models of directional change, unbiased random walk, and stasis to a dataset of 635 traits across 153 species lineages, we find that within the majority of lineages, evolutionary mode varies across traits and the likelihood of conflicting within-lineage patterns increases with the number of traits analyzed. In addition, single traits may show variation in evolutionary mode even in situations where the overall morphological evolution of the lineage is dominated by one type of mode. These quantified, stratigraphically based findings validate the idea that morphological patterns of mosaic evolution are pervasive across groups of organisms throughout Earth’s history.