SHORT COMMUNICATION: Little evidence for Cope’s rule from Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of extant mammals

Monroe, Melanie J.; Bokma, Folmer

doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02051.x

Cited by 31 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…We find no evidence for miniaturization from extant oryzomyine, in accordance with Monroe & Bokma [29] who did not observe any trend for mammals in general. However, our results support Cope's rule in extant species, in accordance with the work of FitzJohn [25], which focused on primates, but determined a different drift model ( i.e.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…He suggested that although most of the rodents he studied remained small, a few became larger and were able to invade different niches. Stanley cautioned that because there are smaller than large-bodied mammals, there may be a passive tendency for evolution from small to large body size (taken from Monroe & Bokma [29]). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Monroe & Bokma [29] find no evidence for Cope's rule in extant mammals using a single phylogenetic tree approach and a Bayesian based model of evolution. Their study analyzed the evolution of body size in 4,554 existing mammal species, in a phylogenetic tree that comprises nearly all mammals, and is currently the most comprehensive of its kind using extant species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Body Size Evolution in Extant Oryzomyini Rodents: Cope's Rule or Miniaturization?

et al. 2012

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At the macroevolutionary level, one of the first and most important hypotheses that proposes an evolutionary tendency in the evolution of body sizes is “Cope's rule". This rule has considerable empirical support in the fossil record and predicts that the size of species within a lineage increases over evolutionary time. Nevertheless, there is also a large amount of evidence indicating the opposite pattern of miniaturization over evolutionary time. A recent analysis using a single phylogenetic tree approach and a Bayesian based model of evolution found no evidence for Cope's rule in extant mammal species. Here we utilize a likelihood-based phylogenetic method, to test the evolutionary trend in body size, which considers phylogenetic uncertainty, to discern between Cope's rule and miniaturization, using extant Oryzomyini rodents as a study model. We evaluated body size trends using two principal predictions: (a) phylogenetically related species are more similar in their body size, than expected by chance; (b) body size increased (Cope's rule)/decreased (miniaturization) over time. Consequently the distribution of forces and/or constraints that affect the tendency are homogenous and generate this directional process from a small/large sized ancestor. Results showed that body size in the Oryzomyini tribe evolved according to phylogenetic relationships, with a positive trend, from a small sized ancestor. Our results support that the high diversity and specialization currently observed in the Oryzomyini tribe is a consequence of the evolutionary trend of increased body size, following and supporting Cope's rule.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Body Size Evolution in Extant Oryzomyini Rodents: Cope's Rule or Miniaturization?

et al. 2012

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“…Though Cope's rule has been supported for fossil mammals [10,42] and some dinosaurian clades [30,37], it did not occur in all dinosaurs [31,32], including Mesozoic birds [43]), and no neontological studies support its occurrence [3,44]). The results of our phylogenetic models provide little evidence for active trends towards higher (or lower) body sizes during the Late PermianMiddle Jurassic interval (approx.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rise of dinosaurs reveals major body-size transitions are driven by passive processes of trait evolution

2012

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A major macroevolutionary question concerns how long-term patterns of body-size evolution are underpinned by smaller scale processes along lineages. One outstanding long-term transition is the replacement of basal therapsids (stem-group mammals) by archosauromorphs, including dinosaurs, as the dominant large-bodied terrestrial fauna during the Triassic (approx. 252 -201 million years ago). This landmark event preceded more than 150 million years of archosauromorph dominance. We analyse a new body-size dataset of more than 400 therapsid and archosauromorph species spanning the Late Permian -Middle Jurassic. Maximum-likelihood analyses indicate that Cope's rule (an active within-lineage trend of body-size increase) is extremely rare, despite conspicuous patterns of body-size turnover, and contrary to proposals that Cope's rule is central to vertebrate evolution. Instead, passive processes predominate in taxonomically and ecomorphologically more inclusive clades, with stasis common in less inclusive clades. Body-size limits are clade-dependent, suggesting intrinsic, biological factors are more important than the external environment. This clade-dependence is exemplified by maximum size of Middle -early Late Triassic archosauromorph predators exceeding that of contemporary herbivores, breaking a widelyaccepted 'rule' that herbivore maximum size greatly exceeds carnivore maximum size. Archosauromorph and dinosaur dominance occurred via opportunistic replacement of therapsids following extinction, but were facilitated by higher archosauromorph growth rates.

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“…Despite the paleontological support, evidence for Cope's rule remains elusive from studies of extant data alone (13)(14)(15), including studies of the mammals (16). A possible reason for the discrepancy between paleontological and extant data might be that conventional comparative methods for studying trends within extant data implicitly assume homogeneous evolutionary patterns and processes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Adaptive evolution toward larger size in mammals

Baker

Meade

Pagel

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

124

155

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The notion that large body size confers some intrinsic advantage to biological species has been debated for centuries. Using a phylogenetic statistical approach that allows the rate of body size evolution to vary across a phylogeny, we find a long-term directional bias toward increasing size in the mammals. This pattern holds separately in 10 of 11 orders for which sufficient data are available and arises from a tendency for accelerated rates of evolution to produce increases, but not decreases, in size. On a branch-bybranch basis, increases in body size have been more than twice as likely as decreases, yielding what amounts to millions and millions of years of rapid and repeated increases in size away from the small ancestral mammal. These results are the first evidence, to our knowledge, from extant species that are compatible with Cope's rule: the pattern of body size increase through time observed in the mammalian fossil record. We show that this pattern is unlikely to be explained by several nonadaptive mechanisms for increasing size and most likely represents repeated responses to new selective circumstances. By demonstrating that it is possible to uncover ancient evolutionary trends from a combination of a phylogeny and appropriate statistical models, we illustrate how data from extant species can complement paleontological accounts of evolutionary history, opening up new avenues of investigation for both. macroevolution | adaptive evolution | evolutionary trends | Cope's rule | ancestral state reconstruction T he idea that large size confers some intrinsic advantage has lingered in the psyche of biologists for centuries. Researchers have proposed that bigger body sizes can increase tolerance to environmental extremes (1), reduce mortality (2), and enhance predation success (3), among other advantages. In support of these conjectures, analyses from a range of different taxonomic groups demonstrate that larger individuals within populations have significantly enhanced survival, fecundity, and mating success (4, 5). If these advantages are general and have played out over long time scales, they could explain the existence of Cope's rule (6): a broad trend toward increasing size through time (4, 5, 7).Mammals evolved from a relatively small common ancestor over 165 Ma (8-10) and went on to form one of the largest and most successful vertebrate radiations in Earth's history. Mammals vary greatly in size, spanning almost eight orders of magnitude. This variation implies that some groups have experienced much greater evolutionary change in size from the ancestral form than others. Indeed, the mammalian fossil record provides the clearest evidence in support of Cope's rule over long evolutionary time scales (6,11,12).Despite the paleontological support, evidence for Cope's rule remains elusive from studies of extant data alone (13-15), including studies of the mammals (16). A possible reason for the discrepancy between paleontological and extant data might be that conventional comparative methods for studying tr...

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SHORT COMMUNICATION: Little evidence for Cope’s rule from Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of extant mammals

Cited by 31 publications

References 35 publications

Body Size Evolution in Extant Oryzomyini Rodents: Cope's Rule or Miniaturization?

Body Size Evolution in Extant Oryzomyini Rodents: Cope's Rule or Miniaturization?

Rise of dinosaurs reveals major body-size transitions are driven by passive processes of trait evolution

Adaptive evolution toward larger size in mammals

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