Rather than a straightforward march, evolving to be big sometimes involved getting smaller.
too . And the orthodox explanation for this trend, called Cope’s rule, holds that bigger individuals of a single species have a fitness advantage over smaller ones. Towering over predators is a good way to stay off the menu, and bigger bodies can enable bigger brains, expanded dietary options and many other advantages. “So populations will become larger over time, just because it’s better,” Cantalapiedra says.
Cantalapiedra and colleagues tested how well three different evolutionary scenarios — including Cope’s rule — could explain the fossil record of brontotheres. They also used the fossil data to look for links between brontotheres’ size, ecology and the likelihood of going extinct or splitting into new species.
Comparing the family tree of brontotheres with a bonsai, Cantalapiedra says that this mechanism is a bit like letting the bonsai tree’s branches split normally while “cutting branches away from one side.” Cope’s rule, on the other hand, would be like using wires to continuously guide the tree in one direction.
Beyond body size, there’s a wider question in paleobiology about how drastic evolutionary changes happen.
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