Evolutionary trends / Тренды эволюции

The study of the history of life on this planet encompasses the origins of species to their demise: evolution and extinction. This latter aspect has been the main focus of attention since the late 1970s, and has been treated by a host of textbooks. Since the earlier 1970s, evolutionary studies have been dominated by analyses of rates of evolution. However, there is another fundamental aspect of life's history that the fossil record is ideally placed to deal with, yet which has received relatively little attention: the directionality of evolution. Arguably this is one of the most important aspects of evolution. An Mike McKinney points out in Chapter 2, it is more important to know where evolutionary change is going, rather than how fast it goes <...>