Connecting generational processes (microevolution) to the larger-scale patterns of life on earth (macroevolution) remains a fundamental challenge in evolutionary biology. Phenotypic time series, defined as sequences of morphological measurements drawn from multiple organisms in the same lineage over time, offer a direct window into this problem. Time series from the fossil record typically span tens to hundreds of thousands of years or more, documenting historical patterns of evolutionary change in a single species over durations far beyond what we can observe in the present. This makes fossil trait series a uniquely valuable data source for addressing fundamental questions about how evolution operates across time scales. I will present analyses of of phenotypic time series from both living populations and the fossil record, with the goal of assessing whether evolutionary processes are continuous across generations to millions of years, or whether something changes as we move between scales.
Kjetil Lysne Voje - Evolution across time scales: Reconciling the recent and the fossil record
Kjetil Lysne Voje is a Norwegian evolutionary biologist and researcher at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo. He earned a PhD in evolutionary biology from the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo. His research focuses on how new species form, how species are related through evolutionary “family trees,” and how quickly organisms adapt to environmental changes. In 2008–2009, he retraced the South American journey of Charles Darwin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
Published Mar. 16, 2026 2:08 PM
- Last modified Mar. 16, 2026 2:08 PM