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Superiority, Competition, and Opportunism in the Evolutionary Radiation of Dinosaurs
Abstract
The rise and diversification of the dinosaurs in the Late Triassic, from 230 to 200 million years ago, is a classic example of an evolutionary radiation with supposed competitive replacement. A comparison of evolutionary rates and morphological disparity of basal dinosaurs and their chief “competitors,” the crurotarsan archosaurs, shows that dinosaurs exhibited lower disparity and an indistinguishable rate of character evolution. The radiation of Triassic archosaurs as a whole is characterized by declining evolutionary rates and increasing disparity, suggesting a decoupling of character evolution from body plan variety. The results strongly suggest that historical contingency, rather than prolonged competition or general “superiority,” was the primary factor in the rise of dinosaurs.
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We thank R. Benson, M. Coates, P. Donoghue, M. Foote, M. LaBarbera, and S. Wang for discussion. Supported by the Marshall Scholarship and Paleontological Society (S.L.B.), the UK Natural Environment Research Council (M.J.B., M.R., G.T.L.), and the Royal Society (M.J.B., M.R.).
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Published In
Science
Volume 321 | Issue 5895
12 September 2008
12 September 2008
Copyright
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 16 June 2008
Accepted: 1 August 2008
Published in print: 12 September 2008
Notes
Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5895/1485/DC1
Materials and Methods
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Figs. S1 to S4
Tables S1 to S29
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