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$\begin{figure} \par\includegraphics[width=17cm,clip]{7910Fig1.ps}\end{figure}$ Figure 1: Histograms showing the fraction of VVDS-F02 galaxies as a function of $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 in five different ranges of stellar mass and in three redshift bins ( 0.5-0.7, 0.7-1.0, 1.0-1.3, rows 2-4). We plot as a comparison in the first row the $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 galaxy distribution for the local Universe ( $z \sim 0$ ) from the SDSS DR4 (Adelman-McCarthy et al. 2006). The counts corrected for non-targeted sources in our spectroscopic observations and for spectroscopic failures (unidentified sources) following Ilbert et al. (2005) are reported in the first line at the top of each panel, the observed counts of (total, late-, and early-type) galaxies in the second line. The vertical dotted lines at $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 = 1.5 represent the adopted separation between early- and late-type galaxies. The vertical dashed lines represent the median $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 distribution in each panel. The panels in the first column dominated mostly entirely by late-type galaxies have dashed $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 distribution when the mass completeness for the late-type population is less than 50%.
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In the text

$\begin{figure} \par\includegraphics[width=8cm,clip]{7910Fig2.ps}\end{figure}$ Figure 2: The median EW[O II] as a function of the redshift for our VVDS-F02 sample a) in bins of stellar masses, coded as follows: $9.0 < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le 9.5$ (blue, circle), $9.5 < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le {10}$ (cyan, square), ${10} < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le {10.5}$ (magenta, triangle), $10.5 < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le {11}$ (red, diamond), and $\log~(M/M_{\odot}) >{11}$ (green, pentagon). The same visualization is presented for the spectroscopic early- b) and late-type galaxies c). The symbols represent the observed EW[O II] and the arrows the dust corrected EW[O II]. The points are connected with dashed (dotted) lines when the mass completeness of each population is above (below) 50%.
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In the text

$\begin{figure} \par\includegraphics[width=8.5cm,clip]{7910Fig3.ps}\end{figure}$ Figure 3: Stellar mass function for the spectroscopically classified late-type (empty circles) and early-type (filled circles) galaxies from VVDS-F02 sample. The total mass function for each redshift bin is plotted as dashed-point line, while in each panel we also report the total local MF range, using Cole et al. (2001) and Bell et al. (2003) (shaded region and dotted line, respectively). The stellar mass functions of the two spectral types of the lowest redshift bin are over-plotted at each panel as dotted lines. The vertical dashed lines represent the 80% completeness limits for the two spectral types.
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In the text

$\begin{figure} \par\includegraphics[width=8cm,clip]{7910Fig4.ps}\end{figure}$ Figure 4: The evolution of the fraction of galaxies classified spectroscopically as early-type in different mass intervals. The mass bins are coded as follows: $9.0 < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le 9.5$ (blue, circle), $9.5 < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le {10}$ (cyan, square), ${10} < \log~(M/M_{\odot}) \le {10.5}$ (magenta, triangle), ${10.5}<\log~(M/M_{\odot})<{11}$ (red, diamond), $\log~(M/M_{\odot}) >{11}$ (green, pentagon). Filled symbols represent the counts of observed galaxies, while the open symbols represent the counts derived from 1/ $V_{\rm max}$ formalism. The dashed lines are the Schechter fitted values to the stellar mass function (dotted in the case of mass completeness for early-type galaxies below 50%.) The points at $z \sim 0$ are our SDSS reference points.
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In the text

$\begin{figure} \par\includegraphics[width=15.5cm,clip]{7910Fig5.ps}\end{figure}$ Figure 5: Histograms showing the fraction of VVDS galaxies as a function of $D_{\rm n}$ 4000 for five different ranges of stellar mass at three redshift epochs ( 0.5-0.7, 0.7-1.0, 1.0-1.3). The corresponding look-back time is also indicated. We define $\Delta t$ for each galaxy at redshift z as the time interval between the age of the Universe at the observed redshift z and the time corresponding to the lower limit of the redshift bin in which the galaxy falls. Left-leaning diagonal (blue) histograms represent those galaxies that assemble within a time $\Delta t$ a stellar mass enough to move to a higher mass interval and with right-leaning diagonals (red) those staying in the mass interval assigned at the time of the observations. The assumption is that these galaxies will sustain a constant observed SFR over the time $\Delta t$ , which turns to be a reasonable assumption as our $\Delta t$ is never larger than 1.3 Gyr.
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In the text