Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage
Open accessAbstract
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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At Pennaraptora and Paraves, there is a notable reduction in body size.
“This coincides with a notable reduction in body size [3, 41, 73, 78, 79]”
From Potential for Powered Flight Neared by Most Close Avialan Relatives, but Few Crossed Its Thresholds (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
The Results describe notable, nested body-size reductions on the line leading to birds, including at Paraves; Table 3 (Materials and Methods) identifies the origin of small body size in Paraves. The paper identifies the other reduction at Coelurosauria, not specifically at Pennaraptora, so it supports only part of the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA survey of 1000 specimens covering dozens of species failed to recover reliable limb bone circumferences because long bones are crushed or flattened on mudrock slabs.
“While limb bone circumference has been shown to be a more accurate proxy of theropod body size [3, 53], this measurement was not available in many important Chinese paravian taxa because their long bones are crushed or flattened on mudrock slabs (a survey of 1000 specimens covering dozens of species failed to recover reliable circumferences).”
From Potential for Powered Flight Neared by Most Close Avialan Relatives, but Few Crossed Its Thresholds (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
Materials and Methods describes using limb-bone circumference to estimate mass for 441 taxa, but does not report a survey of 1,000 specimens or dozens of species. Searches for crushed or flattened bones, mudrock slabs, and failed circumference measurements found no passage addressing the claimed survey. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Novelty and Innovation in the History of Life
Erwin, D. H. (2015) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.019 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Campione, N. E., Evans, D. C., Brown, C. M., & Carrano, M. T. (2014) · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1111/2041-210x.12226 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Self-citationPotential for Powered Flight Neared by Most Close Avialan Relatives, but Few Crossed Its Thresholds
Pei, R., Pittman, M., Goloboff, P. A., Dececchi, T. A., Habib, M. B., Kaye, T. G., Larsson, H. C. E., Norell, M. A., Brusatte, S. L., & Xu, X. (2020) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.105 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
“While limb bone circumference has been shown to be a more accurate proxy of theropod body size [3, 53], this measurement was not available in many important Chinese paravian taxa because their long bones are crushed or flattened on mudrock slabs (a survey of 1000 specimens covering dozens of species failed to recover…”
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“The pattern of character acquisition, adult body reduction size (Benson et al., 2014), and parallel emergences of aerodynamic locomotion within Paraves suggests one possible solution to the traditional dichotomy of arboreal vs. terrestrial habitats in the origin of avian flight.”
BackgroundA new Jurassic scansoriopterygid and the loss of membranous wings in theropod dinosaurs
Wang, M., O’Connor, J. K., Xu, X., & Zhou, Z. (2019) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1137-z · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Fossil biomolecules reveal an avian metabolism in the ancestral dinosaur
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From dinosaurs to modern bird diversity: extending the time scale of adaptive radiation
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Avian features of Archaeopteryx feeding apparatus reflect elevated demands of flight
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- Authors
- Benson, R. B. J., Campione, N. E., Carrano, M. T., Mannion, P. D., Sullivan, C., Upchurch, P., & Evans, D. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (CN)
- University College London (GB)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Benson, Roger B. J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS Biology
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-05-06
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- e1001853
- ISSN
- 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-7885
- PMC
- PMC4011683
- OpenAlex
- W2155522161
- Cited by
- 457
- References
- 104
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 16
- FWCI
- 31.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2014-06-02)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RUNE (Research UNE) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Smithsonian Digital Repository (Smithsonian Institution) (submittedVersion)
- KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Leverhulme Trust (RPG-129)
- Imperial College London
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Plant Diversity and Evolution
- Keywords
- adaptive radiation, Mesozoic dinosaurs, green innovation, niche filling, feathered dinosaurs, body size scaling, evolutionary rates, evolvability
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Birds, Extremities, Feathers, Fossils, Phylogeny, Dinosaurs, Biodiversity, Body Size, Genetic Speciation, Extinction, Biological, Animal Distribution
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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