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Nanuksaurus standing in the background and skull Pachyrhinosaurus in the foreground are among the dinosaur species included in a new study led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Reading that casts doubt on Bergmann’s law. ing.Credit: James Heavens
Throw dinosaurs into the mix and you may find that the rules don’t apply at all.
A new study led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Reading builds on an 1800s scientific principle that animals living in cooler climates at higher latitudes tend to be larger than their relatives living in warmer climates. This casts doubt on Bergman’s law. .
The fossil record shows otherwise.
“Our study shows that the evolution of diverse body sizes in dinosaurs and mammals cannot be simply reduced to a function of latitude or temperature,” said UAF graduate student and author of the paper published in the journal said Lauren Wilson, lead author of the paper. nature communications. “We found that Bergmann’s law can only be applied to a subset of warm-blooded animals (animals that maintain a stable body temperature) and only if we consider temperature, ignoring all other climatic variables.” suggests that Bergmann’s “rule” is actually the exception rather than the rule. ”
Examination of Bergmann’s law in dinosaurs and modern species
This research began with a simple question that Wilson discussed with his undergraduate advisor: “Does Bergmann’s law apply to dinosaurs?”
After evaluating hundreds of data points collected from the fossil record, the answer appeared to be a clear no.
This dataset included the northernmost dinosaurs known to scientists, those living in Alaska’s Prince Creek Formation. They experienced subzero temperatures and snowfall. Nevertheless, the researchers found that none of the Arctic dinosaurs significantly increased in body size.
The researchers then attempted the same assessment for modern mammals and birds, as well as descendants of prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs. The results were almost the same. Latitude was not a predictor of body size in modern birds and mammals. seed. While there was a small relationship between body size and temperature in modern birds, this was not the case for prehistoric birds.
Researchers say the study is a great example of how scientists can and should use the fossil record to test current scientific rules and hypotheses.
“The fossil record provides a window into completely different ecosystems and climatic conditions, allowing us to assess the applicability of these ecological rules in entirely new ways,” said Dr. said Jacob Gardner, the book’s other lead author. paper.
Pat Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and one of the study’s co-authors, said the same scientific rules should apply to fossil organisms as they do to modern organisms.
“You can’t understand modern ecosystems if you ignore their evolutionary roots,” he says. “To understand how things got to be the way they are today, we have to look to the past.”
Reference: “Global Latitude Gradients and the Evolution of Dinosaur and Mammal Body Size” Lauren N. Wilson, Jacob D. Gardner, John P. Wilson, Alex Farnsworth, Zachary R. Perry, Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson and Chris L. Organ, April 5, 2024. nature communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46843-2
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