@article{10902/35893,
year = {2025},
month = {2},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/35893},
abstract = {Some of the smallest examples of dinosaurian body size are from alvarezsaurians, an enigmatic group of maniraptoran coelurosaurians with a peculiar combination of anatomical features unique among theropods. Despite the large number of alvarezsaurian species described worldwide and the increased understanding this has provided, the body-size macroevolution of alvarezsaurians has received little attention. Here we reconstruct and analyse directional trends of alvarezsaurian body-size evolution through an integrated analysis of body mass, ontogenetic age, and morphological rate data enabled by a comprehensively revised phylogeny. Our analyses identify four periods of high morphological rate evolution (Bathonian-Callovian, Hauterivian-early Berriasian, early Cenomanian, and late Cenomanian-Turonian) that we link to the key effects of animal body-size changes for the first time, including morphological novelty, structural reduction and simplification, elevated homoplasy, and behavioral changes associated with miniaturization. In doing so, this study provides a holistic example of miniaturization in a Mesozoic vertebrate group that offers a framework for other detailed studies of animal body-size evolution, including in more disparate groups.},
publisher = {John Wiley & Sons},
publisher = {Cladistics, 2025, 41(1), 135-155},
title = {Body size and evolutionary rate analyses reveal complex evolutionary history of Alvarezsauria},
author = {Meso, Jorge Gustavo and Pol, Diego and Chiappe, Luis and Qin, Zichuan and Díaz Martínez, Ignacio and Gianechini, Federico and Apesteguía, Sebastián and Makovicky, Peter J. and Pittman, Michael},
}