Dinosaur body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions
129 views
Skip to first unread message
Ben Creisler
Jun 11, 2026, 11:21:14 AM (8 days ago) Jun 11
to DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com
Ben Creisler
A new paper:
NOTE: The article is marked as “free access” but it’s paywalled for now.
Lauren N. Wilson, Jacob D. Gardner, John P. Wilson, Alex Farnsworth, Paul Valdes, Zackary R. Perry, Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson & Chris L. Organ (2026)
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs
Palaeontology 69(3): e70068
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.70068
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.70068
Body size evolution is commonly associated with climate change. For example, birds and mammals have been found to decrease in size with anthropogenic global warming. Recent studies have inferred distinct shifts in climatic niche preferences among the three major dinosaur clades. Following the Early Jurassic Toarcian extinction event (Jenkyns Event), sauropods increasingly occupied warmer and drier environments, while theropods shifted toward cooler and wetter climates. Ornithischians showed a similar pattern to theropods, but much later, coinciding with the Late Cretaceous Cenomanian/Turonian boundary. We apply phylogenetic comparative methods to test whether shifts in preferred climatic niches are coupled with dinosaur body size evolution. We find no support for a correlation between body size and local palaeotemperature, seasonality, or mean annual precipitation (MAP) among species in any dinosaur clade, before or after shifts in preferred climatic niches. With this original dataset, we find that larger eusauropod body sizes are weakly correlated with lower MAP after the Jenkyns Event. However, this trend is not recovered when using a larger and more recent dataset of eusauropods, demonstrating that the strength of such climate–size relationships is subject to sampling intensity. Our findings highlight the complex role of climate on body size evolution and how the detection of macroevolutionary patterns is influenced by sample size.
NOTE: The article is marked as “free access” but it’s paywalled for now.
Lauren N. Wilson, Jacob D. Gardner, John P. Wilson, Alex Farnsworth, Paul Valdes, Zackary R. Perry, Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson & Chris L. Organ (2026)
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs
Palaeontology 69(3): e70068
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.70068
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.70068
Body size evolution is commonly associated with climate change. For example, birds and mammals have been found to decrease in size with anthropogenic global warming. Recent studies have inferred distinct shifts in climatic niche preferences among the three major dinosaur clades. Following the Early Jurassic Toarcian extinction event (Jenkyns Event), sauropods increasingly occupied warmer and drier environments, while theropods shifted toward cooler and wetter climates. Ornithischians showed a similar pattern to theropods, but much later, coinciding with the Late Cretaceous Cenomanian/Turonian boundary. We apply phylogenetic comparative methods to test whether shifts in preferred climatic niches are coupled with dinosaur body size evolution. We find no support for a correlation between body size and local palaeotemperature, seasonality, or mean annual precipitation (MAP) among species in any dinosaur clade, before or after shifts in preferred climatic niches. With this original dataset, we find that larger eusauropod body sizes are weakly correlated with lower MAP after the Jenkyns Event. However, this trend is not recovered when using a larger and more recent dataset of eusauropods, demonstrating that the strength of such climate–size relationships is subject to sampling intensity. Our findings highlight the complex role of climate on body size evolution and how the detection of macroevolutionary patterns is influenced by sample size.
Ben Creisler
Jun 12, 2026, 12:39:48 PM (7 days ago) Jun 12
to DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com
The free pdf is now posted and can be downloaded:
Lauren N. Wilson, Jacob D. Gardner, John P. Wilson, Alex Farnsworth, Paul Valdes, Zackary R. Perry, Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson & Chris L. Organ (2026)
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs
Palaeontology 69(3): e70068
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.70068
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.70068
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs
Palaeontology 69(3): e70068
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.70068
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.70068
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages