Body size reductions in nonmammalian eutheriodont therapsids (Synapsida) during the end-Permian mass extinction.

ABSTRACT: The extent to which mass extinctions influence body size evolution in major tetrapod clades is inadequately understood. For example, the 'Lilliput effect,' a common feature of mass extinctions, describes a temporary decrease in body sizes of survivor taxa in post-extinction faunas. However, its signature on existing patterns of body size evolution in tetrapods and the persistence of its impacts during post-extinction recoveries are virtually unknown, and rarely compared in both geologic and phylogenetic contexts. Here, I evaluate temporal and phylogenetic distributions of body size in Permo-Triassic therocephalian and cynodont therapsids (eutheriodonts) using a museum collections-based approach and time series model fitting on a regional stratigraphic sequence from the Karoo Basin, South A

SUBMITTER: Huttenlocker AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3911975 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature