  A magnitude limited sample of nearly 9000 early-type galaxies, in the
redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.3, was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
using morphological and spectral criteria. The Fundamental Plane relation in
this sample is R_o ~ sigma^{1.49\pm 0.05} I_o^{-0.75\pm 0.01} in the r* band.
It is approximately the same in the g*, i* and z* bands. Relative to the
population at the median redshift in the sample, galaxies at lower and higher
redshifts have evolved only little. If the Fundamental Plane is used to
quantify this evolution then the apparent magnitude limit can masquerade as
evolution; once this selection effect has been accounted for, the evolution is
consistent with that of a passively evolving population which formed the bulk
of its stars about 9 Gyrs ago. One of the principal advangtages of the SDSS
sample over previous samples is that the galaxies in it lie in environments
ranging from isolation in the field to the dense cores of clusters. The
Fundamental Plane shows that galaxies in dense regions are slightly different
from galaxies in less dense regions.
