Paleontology becoming more collaborative?

[Saint Abyssal <saint_abyssal@yahoo.com>]

I can't be the only one to have noticed that 2000s era scientific papers have 
significantly more authors than previous papers, at least in paleontology. Has 
anyone done any research that would corroborate the idea that science in 
general or paleontology in particular has increasingly become a team effort in 
recent times? If so, could you point me in the direction of a PDF (or at least 
a reference)?

Many thanks, 

~Abyssal