News Release

EARTH: Bigger is better in the sea

Reports and Proceedings

American Geosciences Institute

Alexandria, VA - Analyzing thousands of records, researchers have reinforced the claim that for marine life, bigger has been better for the last 542 million years. The study examined Cope's rule - the idea, named for paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, that species evolve to larger sizes over time.

With the help of undergraduate students and high-school interns, the researchers compiled information on five major marine phyla, including arthropods, brachiopods, chordates, echinoderms and mollusks. Find out how much bigger things got in the June issue of EARTH Magazine: http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/bigger-better-sea.

Including several complimentary articles published online every month, EARTH Magazine brings you even more of the science behind the headlines in the full June 2015 Issue now available on the digital newsstand at http://www.earthmagazine.org. Stories include Travels in Geology: Hiking the Catskill Mountains, Down to Earth: Geophysicist Peter Molnar, and more coverage of the latest research conducted in the geosciences.

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Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH magazine online at: http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.


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