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- Title
Cope's rule and the dynamics of body mass evolution in North American fossil mammals.
- Authors
Alroy, J
- Abstract
Body mass estimates for 1534 North American fossil mammal species show that new species are on average 9.1% larger than older species in the same genera. This within-lineage effect is not a sampling bias. It persists throughout the Cenozoic, accounting for the gradual overall increase in average mass (Cope's rule). The effect is stronger for larger mammals, being near zero for small mammals. This variation partially explains the unwavering lower size limit and the gradually expanding mid-sized gap, but not the sudden large increase in the upper size limit, at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
- Publication
Science (New York, N.Y.), 1998, Vol 280, Issue 5364, p731
- ISSN
0036-8075
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1126/science.280.5364.731