Better explicating the strengths and shortcomings of these models will help refine projections and improve transparency in the years ahead.
Image credit: Witsawat.S.
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Edited by James W. Valentine, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved November 14, 2008 (received for review July 1, 2008)
Abstract
The maximum size of organisms has increased enormously since the initial appearance of life >3.5 billion years ago (Gya), but the pattern and timing of this size increase is poorly known. Consequently, controls underlying the size spectrum of the global biota have been difficult to evaluate. Our period-level compilation of the largest known fossil organisms demonstrates that maximum size increased by 16 orders of magnitude since life first appeared in the fossil record. The great majority of the increase is accounted for by 2 discrete steps of approximately equal magnitude: the first in the middle of the Paleoproterozoic Era (≈1.9 Gya) and the second during the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras (0.6–0.45 Gya). Each size step required a major innovation in organismal complexity—first the eukaryotic cell and later eukaryotic multicellularity. These size steps coincide with, or slightly postdate, increases in the concentration of atmospheric oxygen, suggesting latent evolutionary potential was realized soon after environmental limitations were removed.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jlpayne{at}stanford.edu
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Author contributions: J.L.P., A.G.B., J.H.B., S.F., M.K., R.A.K., S.K.L., C.R.M., D.W.M., P.M.N.-G., F.A.S., J.A.S., and S.C.W. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0806314106/DCSupplemental.
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Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity
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