Data from: Temporal trends in allometry of shell calcification in northeastern Pacific venerid bivalves: Implications for predicting responses to climate change

Despite a literature spanning almost a century, how allometric
relationships of phenotypic traits behave over evolutionary time still
remains poorly known for most marine species. In particular, the fossil
record is seriously underutilized in this context despite harboring a rich
archive of traits. Here we use the late Pleistocene fossil record in San
Diego, California, in conjunction with archival and field-collected
specimens, to quantify temporal changes in allometric relationships
between shell size and calcification, two important functional traits, in
five different species of marine bivalves. Our results reject the
traditional hypothesis that allometric relationships are statistically
invariant over time. They also show that temporal changes in allometric
relationships are species-specific, with closely related species showing
divergent trends. Finally, we argue that information about the nature of
long-term changes in allometric relationships of functionally important
traits can provide an important yet underappreciated tool for
understanding species and population responses to climate change.