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Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage.
PLoS Biol. 2014 May; 12(5):e1001853.PB

Abstract

Large-scale adaptive radiations might explain the runaway success of a minority of extant vertebrate clades. This hypothesis predicts, among other things, rapid rates of morphological evolution during the early history of major groups, as lineages invade disparate ecological niches. However, few studies of adaptive radiation have included deep time data, so the links between extant diversity and major extinct radiations are unclear. The intensively studied Mesozoic dinosaur record provides a model system for such investigation, representing an ecologically diverse group that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for 170 million years. Furthermore, with 10,000 species, extant dinosaurs (birds) are the most speciose living tetrapod clade. We assembled composite trees of 614-622 Mesozoic dinosaurs/birds, and a comprehensive body mass dataset using the scaling relationship of limb bone robustness. Maximum-likelihood modelling and the node height test reveal rapid evolutionary rates and a predominance of rapid shifts among size classes in early (Triassic) dinosaurs. This indicates an early burst niche-filling pattern and contrasts with previous studies that favoured gradualistic rates. Subsequently, rates declined in most lineages, which rarely exploited new ecological niches. However, feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs (including Mesozoic birds) sustained rapid evolution from at least the Middle Jurassic, suggesting that these taxa evaded the effects of niche saturation. This indicates that a long evolutionary history of continuing ecological innovation paved the way for a second great radiation of dinosaurs, in birds. We therefore demonstrate links between the predominantly extinct deep time adaptive radiation of non-avian dinosaurs and the phenomenal diversification of birds, via continuing rapid rates of evolution along the phylogenetic stem lineage. This raises the possibility that the uneven distribution of biodiversity results not just from large-scale extrapolation of the process of adaptive radiation in a few extant clades, but also from the maintenance of evolvability on vast time scales across the history of life, in key lineages.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Benson RB
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Campione NE
Departments of Earth Sciences (Palaeobiology) and Organismal Biology (Evolution and Development), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Carrano MT
Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, United States of America.
Mannion PD
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Sullivan C
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China.
Upchurch P
Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Evans DC
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada.

MeSH

Adaptation, PhysiologicalAnimal DistributionAnimalsBiodiversityBirdsBody SizeDinosaursExtinction, BiologicalExtremitiesFeathersFossilsGenetic SpeciationPhylogeny

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

24802911

Citation

Benson, Roger B J., et al. "Rates of Dinosaur Body Mass Evolution Indicate 170 Million Years of Sustained Ecological Innovation On the Avian Stem Lineage." PLoS Biology, vol. 12, no. 5, 2014, pp. e1001853.
Benson RB, Campione NE, Carrano MT, et al. Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage. PLoS Biol. 2014;12(5):e1001853.
Benson, R. B., Campione, N. E., Carrano, M. T., Mannion, P. D., Sullivan, C., Upchurch, P., & Evans, D. C. (2014). Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage. PLoS Biology, 12(5), e1001853. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001853
Benson RB, et al. Rates of Dinosaur Body Mass Evolution Indicate 170 Million Years of Sustained Ecological Innovation On the Avian Stem Lineage. PLoS Biol. 2014;12(5):e1001853. PubMed PMID: 24802911.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage. AU - Benson,Roger B J, AU - Campione,Nicolás E, AU - Carrano,Matthew T, AU - Mannion,Philip D, AU - Sullivan,Corwin, AU - Upchurch,Paul, AU - Evans,David C, Y1 - 2014/05/06/ PY - 2013/10/16/received PY - 2014/03/28/accepted PY - 2014/5/8/entrez PY - 2014/5/8/pubmed PY - 2015/5/29/medline SP - e1001853 EP - e1001853 JF - PLoS biology JO - PLoS Biol VL - 12 IS - 5 N2 - Large-scale adaptive radiations might explain the runaway success of a minority of extant vertebrate clades. This hypothesis predicts, among other things, rapid rates of morphological evolution during the early history of major groups, as lineages invade disparate ecological niches. However, few studies of adaptive radiation have included deep time data, so the links between extant diversity and major extinct radiations are unclear. The intensively studied Mesozoic dinosaur record provides a model system for such investigation, representing an ecologically diverse group that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for 170 million years. Furthermore, with 10,000 species, extant dinosaurs (birds) are the most speciose living tetrapod clade. We assembled composite trees of 614-622 Mesozoic dinosaurs/birds, and a comprehensive body mass dataset using the scaling relationship of limb bone robustness. Maximum-likelihood modelling and the node height test reveal rapid evolutionary rates and a predominance of rapid shifts among size classes in early (Triassic) dinosaurs. This indicates an early burst niche-filling pattern and contrasts with previous studies that favoured gradualistic rates. Subsequently, rates declined in most lineages, which rarely exploited new ecological niches. However, feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs (including Mesozoic birds) sustained rapid evolution from at least the Middle Jurassic, suggesting that these taxa evaded the effects of niche saturation. This indicates that a long evolutionary history of continuing ecological innovation paved the way for a second great radiation of dinosaurs, in birds. We therefore demonstrate links between the predominantly extinct deep time adaptive radiation of non-avian dinosaurs and the phenomenal diversification of birds, via continuing rapid rates of evolution along the phylogenetic stem lineage. This raises the possibility that the uneven distribution of biodiversity results not just from large-scale extrapolation of the process of adaptive radiation in a few extant clades, but also from the maintenance of evolvability on vast time scales across the history of life, in key lineages. SN - 1545-7885 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/24802911/Rates_of_dinosaur_body_mass_evolution_indicate_170_million_years_of_sustained_ecological_innovation_on_the_avian_stem_lineage_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -