Approaches to macroevolution require integration of its two fundamental components, within a hierarchical framework. Following a companion paper on the origin of variation, I here discuss sorting within an evolutionary hierarchy. Species sorting—sometimes termed species selection in the broad sense, meaning differential origination and extinction owing to intrinsic biological properties—can be split into strict-sense species selection, in which rate differentials are governed by emergent, species-level traits such as geographic range size, and effect macroevolution, in which rates are governed by organism-level traits such as body size; both processes can create hitchhiking effects, indirectly causing the proliferation or decline of other traits. Several methods can operationalize the concept of emergence, so that rigorous separation of these processes is increasingly feasible. A macroevolutionary tradeoff, underlain by the intrinsic traits that influence evolutionary dynamics, causes speciation and extinction rates to covary in many clades, resulting in evolutionary volatility of some clades and more subdued behavior of others; the few clades that break the tradeoff can achieve especially prolific diversification. In addition to intrinsic biological traits at multiple levels, extrinsic events can drive the waxing and waning of clades, and the interaction of traits and events are difficult but important to disentangle. Evolutionary trends can arise in many ways, and at any hierarchical level; descriptive models can be fitted to clade trajectories in phenotypic or functional spaces, but they may not be diagnostic regarding processes, and close attention must be paid to both leading and trailing edges of apparent trends. Biotic interactions can have negative or positive effects on taxonomic diversity within a clade, but cannot be readily extrapolated from the nature of such interactions at the organismic level. The relationships among macroevolutionary currencies through time (taxonomic richness, morphologic disparity, functional variety) are crucial for understanding the nature of evolutionary diversification. A novel approach to diversity-disparity analysis shows that taxonomic diversifications can lag behind, occur in concert with, or precede, increases in disparity. Some overarching issues relating to both the origin and sorting of clades and phenotypes include the macroevolutionary role of mass extinctions, the potential differences between plant and animal macroevolution, whether macroevolutionary processes have changed through geologic time, and the growing human impact on present-day macroevolution. Many challenges remain, but progress is being made on two of the key ones: (a) the integration of variation-generating mechanisms and the multilevel sorting processes that act on that variation, and (b) the integration of paleontological and neontological approaches to historical biology.

中文翻译：

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宏观进化方法：2. 变异的分类、一些总体问题和一般性结论。

宏观进化的方法需要在分层框架内整合其两个基本组成部分。在一篇关于变异起源的配套论文之后，我在这里讨论进化层次结构中的排序。物种分类——有时被称为广义的物种选择，意味着由于内在的生物学特性而产生的差异起源和灭绝——可以分为严格意义上的物种选择，其中速率差异由新兴的物种级特征（例如地理范围）控制大小和影响宏观进化，其中速率由生物体水平特征（例如身体大小）控制；这两个过程都会产生搭便车效应，间接导致其他性状的增殖或衰退。有几种方法可以实施涌现的概念，从而使这些过程的严格分离变得越来越可行。以影响进化动力学的内在特征为基础的宏观进化权衡，导致许多进化枝中的物种形成和灭绝率共变，导致一些进化枝的进化波动性和其他进化枝的行为更加温和；打破这种权衡的少数分支可以实现特别多产的多样化。除了多个层面的内在生物特征外，外在事件也可以驱动进化枝的兴衰，并且特征和事件的相互作用很难但很重要。进化趋势可以以多种方式出现，并且可以在任何层次上出现。描述性模型可以拟合表型或功能空间中的进化枝轨迹，但它们可能无法对过程进行诊断，并且必须密切关注明显趋势的前缘和后缘。生物相互作用可能对进化枝内的分类多样性产生负面或正面影响，但不能轻易地从生物水平上此类相互作用的性质推断出来。宏观进化货币之间随时间的关系（分类丰富性、形态差异、功能多样性）对于理解进化多样化的本质至关重要。一种新颖的多样性差异分析方法表明，分类多样化可能滞后于差异的增加，也可能与差异的增加同时发生，或者先于差异的增加发生。与进化枝和表型的起源和分类相关的一些总体问题包括大规模灭绝的宏观进化作用、植物和动物宏观进化之间的潜在差异、宏观进化过程是否随着地质时间而改变，以及人类对当今宏观进化日益增长的影响。仍然存在许多挑战，但在两个关键问题上正在取得进展：（a）变异生成机制和作用于该变异的多级分类过程的整合，以及（b）古生物学和新生物学方法对历史的整合生物学。