Study undermines evolutionary rule

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - According to Cope's rule, today's animal species are on average larger than older species of the same genus. A large-scale study led by a researcher at the University of Fribourg has just demonstrated that this is not the case in turtles . Paleontologists have noticed that, in the course of their evolution, certain species tend to get bigger and bigger. For example, Hyracotherium, an ancestor of the horse that lived some 50 million years ago, was no more than 20 cm at the withers - much smaller than today's horses. This tendency of lineages to evolve towards a larger body size is known as Cope's rule. However, this rule does not apply to turtles, as demonstrated by a major study published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution, led by Bruna M. Farina of the Biology Department at the University of Fribourg. A more exhaustive study than ever.