Climate change, body size evolution, and Cope's Rule in deep-sea ostracodes.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hunt G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1360587 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Climate change, body size evolution, and Cope's Rule in deep-sea ostracodes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20060123 5
Causes of macroevolutionary trends in body size, such as Cope's Rule, the tendency of body size to increase over time, remain poorly understood. We used size measurements from Cenozoic populations of the ostracode genus Poseidonamicus, in conjunction with phylogeny and paleotemperature estimates, to show that climatic cooling leads to significant increases in body size, both overall and within individual lineages. The magnitude of size increase due to Cenozoic cooling is consistent with temperat ...[more]
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