The maximum rate of mammal evolution.
How fast can a mammal evolve from the size of a mouse to the size of an elephant? Achieving such a large transformation calls for major biological reorganization. Thus, the speed at which this occurs has important implications for extensive faunal changes, including adaptive radiations and recovery from mass extinctions. To quantify the pace of large-scale evolution we developed a metric, clade maximum rate, which represents the maximum evolutionary rate of a trait within a clade. We applied this metric to body mass evolution in mammals over the last 70 million years, during which multiple large evolutionary transitions occurred in oceans and on continents and islands. Our computations suggest that it took a minimum of 1.6, 5.1, and 10 million generations for terrestrial mammal mass to increase 100-, and 1,000-, and 5,000-fold, respectively. Values for whales were down to half the length (i.e., 1.1, 3, and 5 million generations), perhaps due to the reduced mechanical constraints of living in an aquatic environment. When differences in generation time are considered, we find an exponential increase in maximum mammal body mass during the 35 million years following the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. Our results also indicate a basic asymmetry in macroevolution: very large decreases (such as extreme insular dwarfism) can happen at more than 10 times the rate of increases. Our findings allow more rigorous comparisons of microevolutionary and macroevolutionary patterns and processes.
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia. arevans@fastmail.fm
Alistair R
AR
Evans
David
D
Jones
Alison G
AG
Boyer
James H
JH
Brown
Daniel P
DP
Costa
S K Morgan
SK
Ernest
Erich M G
EM
Fitzgerald
Mikael
M
Fortelius
John L
JL
Gittleman
Marcus J
MJ
Hamilton
Larisa E
LE
Harding
Kari
K
Lintulaakso
S Kathleen
SK
Lyons
Jordan G
JG
Okie
Juha J
JJ
Saarinen
Richard M
RM
Sibly
Felisa A
FA
Smith
Patrick R
PR
Stephens
Jessica M
JM
Theodor
Mark D
MD
Uhen
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001835:Body Weight; D008322:Mammals / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D013997:Time Factors