Brontotheres were among the first mammals to evolve large bodies after dinosaurs went extinct. Now we finally know the secret to their impressive size
Thunder beasts were among the first mammals to truly live large. The biggest of these rhino-like creatures, called brontotheres by experts, stood taller than eight feet at the shoulder and weighed more than three tons. The secret to their impressive size, scientists have found, partly stems from competition at the prehistoric salad bar.
By tracking brontothere body size and the appearance of new species through time, Sanisidro and his colleagues looked for any patterns in the fossil record. They were trying to determine whether the mammals underwent steady increases in size through time, evolved larger sizes in a small set of ecological niches, or diversified in a variety of ways without apparent direction.
“Among mammals as a whole,” Benevento says, “some groups evolved larger sizes, some maintained a range of body sizes, and others were almost exclusively small-bodied.” Mammals were filling up the world in different ways after the decimation of the dinosaurs, and brontotheres responded with a wide range of sizes—but the bigger ones appear to have evolved more often and stuck around longer than their smaller counterparts.
The history of smaller brontotheres underscores the point. When Sanisidro and his colleagues looked at how long different species of these horned mammals survived and the communities they lived within, the team found that the smaller-sized brontotheres struggled to survive alongside plant-eaters that were dining on the same sorts of vegetation.
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