Cope’s Rule In The Evolution Of Marine Animals
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-20-2015
Published In
Science
Abstract
Cope’s rule proposes that animal lineages evolve toward larger body size over time. To test this hypothesis across all marine animals, we compiled a data set of body sizes for 17,208 genera of marine animals spanning the past 542 million years. Mean biovolume across genera has increased by a factor of 150 since the Cambrian, whereas minimum biovolume has decreased by less than a factor of 10, and maximum biovolume has increased by more than a factor of 100,000. Neutral drift from a small initial value cannot explain this pattern. Instead, most of the size increase reflects differential diversification across classes, indicating that the pattern does not reflect a simple scaling-up of widespread and persistent selection for larger size within populations.
Recommended Citation
N. A. Heim, M. L. Knope, E. K. Schaal, Steve C. Wang, and J. L. Payne.
(2015).
"Cope’s Rule In The Evolution Of Marine Animals".
Science.
Volume 347,
Issue 6224.
867-870.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1260065
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-math-stat/166