The extended Price equation quantifies species selection on mammalian body size across the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum.

ABSTRACT: Species selection, covariation of species' traits with their net diversification rates, is an important component of macroevolution. Most studies have relied on indirect evidence for its operation and have not quantified its strength relative to other macroevolutionary forces. We use an extension of the Price equation to quantify the mechanisms of body size macroevolution in mammals from the latest Palaeocene and earliest Eocene of the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins of Wyoming. Dwarfing of mammalian taxa across the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), an intense, brief warming event that occurred at approximately 56 Ma, has been suggested to reflect anagenetic change and the immigration of small bodied-mammals, but might also be attributable to species selection. Using previously reco

SUBMITTER: Rankin BD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4528525 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature