Abstract

Macroevolutionary analysis evaluating structural monophyly as descent with modification allows recasting of taxa in terms of physics as evolutionary mechanics. There are four natural ranks, as generalized taxa: the species, genus, lineage, and metalineage, each with distinctive evolutionary processes. The species is the smallest group of organisms whose traits exclude two-sigma of uncertainty and otherwise are active in processes at the genus level. The genus is a complex engine using the Rule of Four and the Pareto Fractal Dimension to fashion and control changes over time in minimally monophyletic groups. Immediate descendant species are limited to four per genus. The lineage is modeled as a caulogram, a stem-taxon tree of present-day species and genera arranged in a timelike sequence. The metalineage is an informationally structured n-tuple set of caulograms for one lineage as calculated at successive times in the past following a morphological clock. Metalineages reveal sustained similar numbers of species across ca. 100 million years, or four or five ticks of a Nemesis extinction clock. Force values associated with evolutionary processes are calculated and compared for two bryophyte lineages at species, genus, and lineage levels. These comparisons include Efficiency Ratio and Evolutionary Force, as well as analogues of classical mechanics: evolutionary distance, velocity, acceleration, force, work, and kinetic energy. A geometric explanation is offered for the Rule of Four constraining the size of minimally monophyletic groups.

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