Size Increase and Decrease Diagram (IMAGE)

Monash University

Size Increase and Decrease Diagram

Caption

Large evolutionary changes in body size take a very long time. A mouse-to-elephant size change would take at least 24 million generations based on the maximum speed of evolution in the fossil record, according to the work of Alistair Evans and co-authors. Becoming smaller can happen much faster than becoming bigger: the evolution of pygmy elephants took 10 times fewer generations than the equivalent sheep-to-elephant size change.

Credit

Alistair Evans, David Jones and IMPPS

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