Superiority, Competition, and Opportunism in the Evolutionary Radiation of Dinosaurs

2008/09/12 by Stephen L. Brusatte, Michael J. Benton, Marcello Ruta +1 · 27 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Amphibian and Reptile Biology

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1161833

openalex publication_date 2008/09/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

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.

Citations

• The Evolution of Dinosaurs
• A critical re‐evaluation of the Late Triassic dinosaur taxa of North America

Cited by

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• Evolutionary structure and timing of major habitat shifts in Crocodylomorpha
• Archosauromorph extinction selectivity during the Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction
• Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction as trigger for the Mesozoic radiation of crocodylomorphs
• The Evolution of the Cenozoic Terrestrial Mammalian Predator Guild in South America: Competition or Replacement?
• Herbivorous ecomorphology and specialization patterns in theropod dinosaur evolution
• The Muensterelloidea: phylogeny and character evolution of Mesozoic stem octopods
• Unappreciated diversification of stem archosaurs during the Middle Triassic predated the dominance of dinosaurs
• Morphological and biomechanical disparity of crocodile-line archosaurs following the end-Triassic extinction
• The timing and pattern of biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction
• The phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs, with an emphasis on the systematics of proterosuchian archosauriforms
• An Unusual New Theropod with a Didactyl Manus from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina
• Morphological convergence obscures functional diversity in sabre-toothed carnivores
• Unidirectional Airflow in the Lungs of Alligators
• Inner ear sensory system changes as extinct crocodylomorphs transitioned from land to water
• No evidence for directional evolution of body mass in herbivorous theropod dinosaurs
• Early crocodylomorph increases top tier predator diversity during rise of dinosaurs
• Osteology of Carnufex carolinensis (Archosauria: Psuedosuchia) from the Pekin Formation of North Carolina and Its Implications for Early Crocodylomorph Evolution
• Neovenatorid theropods are apex predators in the Late Cretaceous of North America
• Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea
• New sharks and other chondrichthyans from the latest Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of North America
• Feeding biomechanics inAcanthostegaand across the fish–tetrapod transition
• Levi, Primo. Si esto es un hombre, México: Oceáno, 1998
• Dinosaur [wikipedia]
• Late Triassic [wikipedia]
• Mammal [wikipedia]