Mammal body size evolution in North America and Europe over 20 Myr: similar trends generated by different processes.

ABSTRACT: Because body size interacts with many fundamental biological properties of a species, body size evolution can be an essential component of the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Here we investigate how body size evolution can be linked to the clade-specific diversification dynamics in different geographical regions. We analyse an extensive body size dataset of Neogene large herbivores (covering approx. 50% of the 970 species in the orders Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla) in Europe and North America in a Bayesian framework. We reconstruct the temporal patterns of body size in each order on each continent independently, and find significant increases of minimum size in three of the continental assemblages (except European perissodactyls), suggesting an active selection for larger bo

SUBMITTER: Huang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5326526 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature