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Ornamental Polymorphism in Placenticeras kaffrarium (Ammonoidea; Upper Cretaceous of India): Evolutionary Implications

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Cephalopods Present and Past: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives

Genetically controlled discontinuous variation within a single population is termed polymorphism (Ford, 1940). According to the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia (1984: 1364), genetic polymorphism is “A form of genetic variation, specifically a discontinuous variation, occurring within plant and animal species in which distinct forms exist together in the same population. …Distinct forms must be controlled by some switch which can produce one form or the other without intermediates such as those arising from environmental differences. This clear-cut control is provided by the recombination of genes.” Genetic polymorphism may produce two or more discontinuous forms of a phenotypic feature due to functional or structural variation in a population. In the presentday organic world this term is used in reference to colonial organisms such as bryozoans and cnidarians and castes in bees, ants, and wasps. Recognition of polymorphism requires study of large populations of the organism in question. That is why it is frequently observed in the living organic world but is rarely recorded in fossils.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology Bengal Engineering and Science, University Shibpur, 711103, Howrah, West Bengal, India

    Tapas K. Gangopadhyay

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, 700032, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Subhendu Bardhan

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  1. Tapas K. Gangopadhyay
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  2. Subhendu Bardhan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, 10024, New York, NY, USA

    Neil H. Landman

  2. College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Richard Arnold Davis

  3. Ohio University, 316 Clippinger Laboratories, 45701, Athens, OH, USA

    Royal H. Mapes

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Gangopadhyay, T.K., Bardhan, S. (2007). Ornamental Polymorphism in Placenticeras kaffrarium (Ammonoidea; Upper Cretaceous of India): Evolutionary Implications. In: Landman, N.H., Davis, R.A., Mapes, R.H. (eds) Cephalopods Present and Past: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6806-5_5

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