该研究团队提出了第一个大规模的系统发育比较分析，以非鸟类兽脚亚目恐龙为重点，研究了身体大小进化的发育策略。该研究团队在一个分类丰富的数据集中重建了生长速度和体重的祖先状态，发现与预期相反，生长速度和持续时间的变化在非鸟类兽脚类动物的巨大体型差异的进化中发挥了几乎相同的作用，也许在一般的羊膜动物中也是如此。
研究人员表示，在羊膜动物中，体型进化背后的主要发育策略被认为是对生长速度的调整，而不是对其持续时间的调整。然而，大多数支持这一公理的理论和实验研究都集中在成对比较和/或缺乏明确的系统发育框架。
附：英文原文
Title: Developmental strategies underlying gigantism and miniaturization in non-avialan theropod dinosaurs
Author: Michael D. DEmic, Patrick M. O’Connor, Riley S. Sombathy, Ignacio Cerda, Thomas R. Pascucci, David Varricchio, Diego Pol, Anjali Dave, Rodolfo A. Coria, Kristina A. Curry Rogers
Issue&Volume: 2023-02-24
Abstract: In amniotes, the predominant developmental strategy underlying body size evolution is thought to be adjustments to the rate of growth rather than its duration. However, most theoretical and experimental studies supporting this axiom focus on pairwise comparisons and/or lack an explicit phylogenetic framework. We present the first large-scale phylogenetic comparative analysis examining developmental strategies underlying the evolution of body size, focusing on non-avialan theropod dinosaurs. We reconstruct ancestral states of growth rate and body mass in a taxonomically rich dataset, finding that contrary to expectations, changes in the rate and duration of growth played nearly equal roles in the evolution of the vast body size disparity present in non-avialan theropods—and perhaps that of amniotes in general.
DOI: adc8714
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adc8714