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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)
Article Figures & SI
Figures
- Fig. 1.
Sizes of the largest fossils through Earth history. Size maxima are illustrated separately for single-celled eukaryotes, animals, and vascular plants for the Ediacaran and Phanerozoic. The solid line denotes the trend in the overall maximum for all of life. Increases in the overall maximum occurred in discrete steps approximately corresponding to increases in atmospheric oxygen levels in the mid-Paleoproterozoic and Ediacaran–Cambrian–early Ordovician. Sizes of the largest fossil prokaryotes were not compiled past 1.9 Gya. Estimates of oxygen levels from Canfield (38) and Holland (37) are expressed in percentage of PAL. Phan., Phanerozoic; Pz., Paleozoic; Mz., Mesozoic; C, Cenozoic. Red triangles, prokaryotes; yellow circles, protists; blue squares, animals; green diamonds, vascular plants; gray square, Vendobiont (probable multicellular eukaryote).
- Fig. 2.
Phanerozoic trends in size maxima for selected animal phyla and plant divisions. (A) Animal phyla. (B) Vascular plant divisions. Historical maxima differ by <2 orders of magnitude among phyla and divisions, although the timing of those historical maxima differs across clades. 1, Pteridophyta; 2, Lycopodiophyta; 3, Pinophyta; 4, Ginkgophyta; 5, Cycadophyta; 6, Magnoliophyta; 7, Equisetophyta; E, Ediacaran; Cm, Cambrian; O, Ordovician; S, Silurian; D, Devonian; C, Carboniferous; P, Permian; Tr, Triassic, J, Jurassic; K, Cretaceous; Pg, Paleogene; N, Neogene.
Related Data
Data supplements
Supporting Information
Correction to the Supporting Information (SI)
The authors note that, due to a printer's error, Table S1 did not publish online.
Below is a link to the corrected SI.
Files in this Data Supplement:
Related Data
Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity
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