Dinosaur Macroevolution and Macroecology

2018/08/16 by Roger Benson · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Amphibian and Reptile Biology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110617-062231

openalex publication_date 2018/08/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Dinosaurs were large-bodied land animals of the Mesozoic that gave rise to birds. They played a fundamental role in structuring Jurassic–Cretaceous ecosystems and had physiology, growth, and reproductive biology unlike those of extant animals. These features have made them targets of theoretical macroecology. Dinosaurs achieved substantial structural diversity, and their fossil record documents the evolutionary assembly of the avian body plan. Phylogeny-based research has allowed new insights into dinosaur macroevolution, including the adaptive landscape of their body size evolution, patterns of species diversification, and the origins of birds and bird-like traits. Nevertheless, much remains unknown due to incompleteness of the fossil record at both local and global scales. This presents major challenges at the frontier of paleobiological research regarding tests of macroecological hypotheses and the effects of dinosaur biology, ecology, and life history on their macroevolution.

Citations

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Cited by

• Ten more years of discovery: revisiting the quality of the sauropodomorph dinosaur fossil record
• Probable basal allosauroid from the early Middle Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina highlights phylogenetic uncertainty in tetanuran theropod dinosaurs
• The accuracy and precision of body mass estimation in non‐avian dinosaurs
• Dinosaur [wikipedia]

Related

• Downsized Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary Transition to Modern Birds
• Sustained miniaturization and anatomical innovation in the dinosaurian ancestors of birds
• An integrative approach to understanding bird origins
• Whence the birds: 200 years of dinosaurs, avian antecedents
• Was Dinosaurian Physiology Inherited by Birds? Reconciling Slow Growth in Archaeopteryx