Re: A new twist on Cope's law

[Jordan Mallon <jordan.mallon@gmail.com>]

On 1/18/06, David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:

> Which is... in fact... _just_ Bergmann's Rule. The study demonstrated
> Bergmann's but not Cope's (which is perhaps better attributed to Depéret).

In the case of this study, yes, I agree.  Is the occurrence of Cope's
Rule always reflective of Bergmann's Rule, though?  My feeling is that
it isn't.  I'd be curious to read more on this.

> Don't be so sure about that. Sauropodomorphs don't seem to (W4tP -- in
> prep).

I'm sure there several deviations from the norm, which isn't at all
surprising.  I'm just going by the general trend explained in:

Hone, D. W. E., T. M. Keesey, D. Pisani, and A. Purvis.  2005. 
Macroevolutionary trends in the Dinosauria: Cope's rule.  Journal of
Evolutionary Biology 18: 587-whateverthelastpagenumberwas.

--
Jordan Mallon

BScH, Carleton University
Vertebrate Palaeontology & Palaeoecology

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