Working Group
The identification and explanation of long-term evolutionary trends in higher taxa and biological communities is an important goal of biological research. Body size is the single most important ecological characteristic of metazoa and the variable most easily applied to analysis of evolutionary trends across distantly related taxa. The proposed working group will bring together paleobiologists studying body size evolution in deep time and across higher taxa with biologists studying the distribution of body sizes in living organisms from the community to global scale. The working group will initiate a community-wide database of body sizes through the Phanerozoic, an effort that requires standardized data on body size across higher taxa. The working group will also catalyze collaborations between paleobiologists and biologists to develop the theory necessary to investigate long-term dynamics in body-size evolution across diverse living and extinct metazoan lineages. The workshop will provide a venue for members to address the relationships between the pattern of body size evolution and the distribution of body sizes in extant organisms. How well can macroevolutionary patterns be inferred from macroecological ones? How well do those patterns reflect evolutionary mechanisms, whether driven or passive? Ultimately, the resulting database will become a broadly applicable and dynamic resource for macroevolutionary research, with real potential to help future workers shed light on the forces that have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of animal life on Earth.
Phanerozoic body size trends in time and space: macroevolution and macroecology
| PI(s): | Jonathan Payne (Stanford University) Jennifer Stempien (University of Colorado) Michal Kowalewski (Virginia Polytechnic Institute) |
| Start Date: | 1-Sep-2006 |
| End Date: | 30-Oct-2009 |
| Keywords: | paleontology, life histories |
The identification and explanation of long-term evolutionary trends in higher taxa and biological communities is an important goal of biological research. Body size is the single most important ecological characteristic of metazoa and the variable most easily applied to analysis of evolutionary trends across distantly related taxa. The proposed working group will bring together paleobiologists studying body size evolution in deep time and across higher taxa with biologists studying the distribution of body sizes in living organisms from the community to global scale. The working group will initiate a community-wide database of body sizes through the Phanerozoic, an effort that requires standardized data on body size across higher taxa. The working group will also catalyze collaborations between paleobiologists and biologists to develop the theory necessary to investigate long-term dynamics in body-size evolution across diverse living and extinct metazoan lineages. The workshop will provide a venue for members to address the relationships between the pattern of body size evolution and the distribution of body sizes in extant organisms. How well can macroevolutionary patterns be inferred from macroecological ones? How well do those patterns reflect evolutionary mechanisms, whether driven or passive? Ultimately, the resulting database will become a broadly applicable and dynamic resource for macroevolutionary research, with real potential to help future workers shed light on the forces that have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of animal life on Earth.
Related products
Software and Datasets- Jonathan Payne, Jennifer Stempien, Hilmar Lapp, Xianhua Liu, Michal Kowalewski. 2009. Maximum Size Database. 2009. Phanerozoic Body Size Trends through Time and Space Working Group. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. Code at http://github.com/NESCent/max-bodysize-evol , web application at http://bodysize.nescent.org
- Payne JL, Boyer AG, Brown JH, Finnegan S, Kowaleski M, Krause Jr RA, Lyons SK, McClain CR, McShea DW, Novack-Gottshall PM, Smith FA, Stempien JA, Wang SC (2008) Data from: Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.223
- A lack of attribution: closing the citation gap through a reform of citation and indexing practices Payne, J.L., F.A. Smith, M. Kowalewski, R.A. Krause, A.G. Boyer, C.R. McClain, S. Finnegan, P.M. Novack-Gottshall, and L. Sheble (2012) A lack of attribution: closing the citation gap through a reform of citation and indexing practices. Taxon 61(6), pp. 1349-1351(3)
- THE GEOZOIC SUPEREON KOWALEWSKI, M., PAYNE, J. L., SMITH, F. A., WANG, S. C., MCSHEA, D. W., XIAO, S., NOVACK-GOTTSHALL, P. M., MCCLAIN, C. R., KRAUSE, R. A., BOYER, A. G., FINNEGAN, S., LYONS, S. K., STEMPIEN, J. A., ALROY J., and SPAETH, P. A. 2011. The Geozoic Supereon, PALAIOS 26(5): 251-255.
- The evolutionary consequences of oxygenic photosynthesis: a body size perspective Jonathan L. Payne, Craig R. McClain, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Seth Finnegan, MichaÅ Kowalewski, Richard A. Krause, S. Kathleen Lyons, Daniel W. McShea, Philip M. Novack-Gottshall, Felisa A. Smith, Paula Spaeth, Jennifer A. Stempien and Steve C. WangThe evolutionary consequences of oxygenic photosynthesis: a body size perspective, Photosynthesis Research, volume 107, issue 1, pp. 37-57
- Theoretical diversity of the marine biosphere Kowalewski, M., and S. Finnegan. 2010. Theoretical diversity of the marine biosphere. Paleobiology 36:1-15.
- Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity Payne, J.L., A.G. Boyer, J.H. Brown, et al. (2009). Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci 106(1): 24-27.
- Boyer, A.G. J.H. Brown, S. Finnegan, M. Kowalewski, R.A. Krause, Jr., S.K. Lyons, C.R. McClain, D.W. McShea, P.M. Novack-Gottshall, J.L. Payne, F.A. Smith, P.A. Spaeth, J.A. Stempien, and S.C. Wang. 2009. An upper limit to maximum body size in animal phyla during the past 500 million years. 94th Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM.
- Novack-Gottshall, P.M., C.R. McClain, P.A. Spaeth, S.C. Wang, A.G. Boyer, J.H. Brown, S. Finnegan, M. Kowalewski, R.A. Krause, Jr., S.K. Lyons, D.W. McShea, J.C. Nekola, S.I. Passy, J.L. Payne, F.A. Smith, and J.A. Stempien. 2009. Variation in local body size distributions of fossil and modern taxonomic groups may reflect habitat and life-history differences. 9th North American Paleontological Convention Abstracts. Cincinnati Museum Center Scientific Contributions Number 3, p. 44.
- Finnegan, S., F.A. Smith, S.K. Lyons, A.G. Boyer, J.H. Brown, M.E. Clapham, Z. Finkel, M.A. Kosnik, M. Kowalewski, R.A. Krause, Jr., R. Lockwood, C.R. McClain, D.W. McShea, P.M. Novack-Gottshall, J.L. Payne, P.A. Spaeth, J.A. Stempien, and S.C. Wang. 2009. Size invariant extinction risk in the marine fossil record. 9th North American Paleontological Convention Abstracts. Cincinnati Museum Center Scientific Contributions Number 3, p. 46.
- Boyer, A.G. J.H. Brown, S. Finnegan, M. Kowalewski, R.A. Krause, Jr., S.K. Lyons, C.R. McClain, D.W. McShea, P.M. Novack-Gottshall, J.L. Payne, F.A. Smith, P.A. Spaeth, J.A. Stempien, and S.C. Wang. 2009. An upper limit to maximum animal body size through the Phanerozoic. 9th North American Paleontological Convention Abstracts. Cincinnati Museum Center Scientific Contributions Number 3, p. 45.
