The Evolution of Maximum Body Size of Terrestrial Mammals

被引:204
|
作者
Smith, Felisa A. [1 ]
Boyer, Alison G. [2 ]
Brown, James H. [1 ]
Costa, Daniel P. [3 ]
Dayan, Tamar [4 ]
Ernest, S. K. Morgan [5 ,6 ]
Evans, Alistair R. [7 ]
Fortelius, Mikael [8 ]
Gittleman, John L. [9 ]
Hamilton, Marcus J. [1 ]
Harding, Larisa E. [10 ]
Lintulaakso, Kari [8 ]
Lyons, S. Kathleen [11 ]
McCain, Christy [12 ]
Okie, Jordan G. [1 ]
Saarinen, Juha J. [8 ]
Sibly, Richard M. [13 ]
Stephens, Patrick R. [9 ]
Theodor, Jessica [14 ]
Uhen, Mark D. [15 ]
机构
[1] Univ New Mexico, Dept Biol, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA
[2] Yale Univ, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
[3] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA
[4] Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Zool, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
[5] Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84322 USA
[6] Utah State Univ, Ctr Ecol, Logan, UT 84322 USA
[7] Monash Univ, Sch Biol Sci, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
[8] Univ Helsinki, Dept Geosci & Geog, Inst Biotechnol, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
[9] Univ Georgia, Odum Sch Ecol, Athens, GA 30602 USA
[10] Umea Univ, Dept Ecol & Environm Sci, SE-90187 Umea, Sweden
[11] MRC 121, Smithsonian Inst, Washington, DC 20013 USA
[12] Univ Colorado, CU Nat Hist Museum, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Boulder, CO 80309 USA
[13] Univ Reading, Sch Biol Sci, Reading, Berks, England
[14] Univ Calgary, Dept Biol Sci, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
[15] George Mason Univ, Dept Atmospher Ocean & Earth Sci, Fairfax, VA 22030 USA
关键词
DIVERSIFICATION; VEGETATION; DINOSAURS; DYNAMICS;
D O I
10.1126/science.1194830
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The extinction of dinosaurs at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary was the seminal event that opened the door for the subsequent diversification of terrestrial mammals. Our compilation of maximum body size at the ordinal level by sub-epoch shows a near-exponential increase after the K/Pg. On each continent, the maximum size of mammals leveled off after 40 million years ago and thereafter remained approximately constant. There was remarkable congruence in the rate, trajectory, and upper limit across continents, orders, and trophic guilds, despite differences in geological and climatic history, turnover of lineages, and ecological variation. Our analysis suggests that although the primary driver for the evolution of giant mammals was diversification to fill ecological niches, environmental temperature and land area may have ultimately constrained the maximum size achieved.
引用
收藏
页码:1216 / 1219
页数:4
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