A test for Cope's rule
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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans
Published on: July 17, 2021
Andrew R Solow1, Woollcott K Smith
1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA. asolow@whoi.edu
Abstract:
Cope's Rule refers to the tendency of body size to increase along an evolutionary lineage. This rule is commonly tested by comparing size differences in pairs of taxa, one of which is assumed to be ancestral to the other. It has recently been pointed out that this approach fails to account for the unknown number of speciation events separating each pair. Here, a test that does account for this degree of separation is described and applied to some published data for dinosaurs. A by-product of the analysis is an estimate of the origination rate of dinosaur species.
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