Extinction is rarely random across ecological and geological time scales. Traits that make
some species more extinction-prone include individual traits, such as body size, and …

Miniaturization, or the evolution of extremely small adult body size, is a widespread
phenomenon in animals. It has important consequences for both organismal biology and …

Biologists often compare average phenotypes of groups of species defined cladistically or
on behavioral, ecological, or physiological criteria (eg, carnivores vs. herbivores, social vs …

Large‐scale evolutionary trends may result from driving forces or from passive diffusion in
bounded spaces. Such trends are persistent directional changes in higher taxa spanning …

Survivorship following major mass extinctions may be associated with a decrease in body
size—a phenomenon called the Lilliput Effect. Body size is a strong predictor of many life …

Analyses of the end-Cretaceous or Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction show no selectivity
of marine bivalve genera by life position (burrowing versus exposed), body size, bathymetric …

The diversity of body sizes of organisms has traditionally been explained in terms of
microevolutionary processes: natural selection owing to differential fitness of individual …

Species' body size distributions are right‐skewed, symmetric or left‐skewed, but right‐
skewness strongly prevails. 2. Skewness changes with taxonomic level, with a tendency to …

Body size is often assumed to represent the outcome of conflicting selection pressures of
natural and sexual selection. Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) populations in the …

This book focuses on the first vertebrates to conquer land and their long journey to become
fully independent from the water. It traces the origin of tetrapod features and tries to explain …