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Body Size Distribution of the Dinosaurs
Authors
A Bartholomai
A Clauset
+83 more
AE Greer
AH Turner
BA Maurer
BA Maurer
BA Maurer
BFJ Manly
BW Silverman
CF Koch
CS Holling
CW Gilmore
D Codron
David W. E. Hone
DB Norman
DJ Varricchio
DM Henderson
DM Henderson
DM Henderson
DN Joanes
DR Morse
DWE Hone
DWE Hone
E Buffetaut
E Siemann
EL Charnov
Eoin J. O’Gorman
ES Riggs
F Seebacher
FA Smith
FH Pough
G Caughley
G Woodward
GM Erickson
GP Burness
J Hummel
J Kozlowski
J Kozlowski
J Peczkis
JA Moore
JB Hatcher
JF Anderson
JF Bonaparte
JH Brown
JH Ostrom
JM Hoare
JO Farlow
JR Horner
JR Speakman
K Carpenter
KE Jones
KJ Gaston
L Salgado
LN Cooper
M Borsuk-Bialynicka
M Kleiber
MP Witton
MRE Symonds
MT Carrano
MW Demment
MW Demment
OL Petchey
P Christiansen
P Christiansen
P Godefroit
P Kindlmann
PC Sereno
PC Sereno
PC Sereno
PC Sereno
Peter Dodson
PJ Currie
PM Galton
PM Galton
PM Sander
RA Coria
RA Coria
RM Alexander
S Meiri
S Meiri
SM Kurzanov
T Gardezi
TM Blackburn
TM Lehman
VJ Bakker
Publication date
19 December 2012
Publisher
'Public Library of Science (PLoS)'
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Abstract
The distribution of species body size is critically important for determining resource use within a group or clade. It is widely known that non-avian dinosaurs were the largest creatures to roam the Earth. There is, however, little understanding of how maximum species body size was distributed among the dinosaurs. Do they share a similar distribution to modern day vertebrate groups in spite of their large size, or did they exhibit fundamentally different distributions due to unique evolutionary pressures and adaptations? Here, we address this question by comparing the distribution of maximum species body size for dinosaurs to an extensive set of extant and extinct vertebrate groups. We also examine the body size distribution of dinosaurs by various sub-groups, time periods and formations. We find that dinosaurs exhibit a strong skew towards larger species, in direct contrast to modern day vertebrates. This pattern is not solely an artefact of bias in the fossil record, as demonstrated by contrasting distributions in two major extinct groups and supports the hypothesis that dinosaurs exhibited a fundamentally different life history strategy to other terrestrial vertebrates. A disparity in the size distribution of the herbivorous Ornithischia and Sauropodomorpha and the largely carnivorous Theropoda suggests that this pattern may have been a product of a divergence in evolutionary strategies: herbivorous dinosaurs rapidly evolved large size to escape predation by carnivores and maximise digestive efficiency; carnivores had sufficient resources among juvenile dinosaurs and non-dinosaurian prey to achieve optimal success at smaller body size. © 2012 O'Gorman, Hone
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