Evidence for a Mid-Jurassic Adaptive Radiation in Mammals

A series of spectacular discoveries have transformed our understanding of Mesozoic mammals in recent years. These finds reveal hitherto-unsuspected ecomorphological diversity that suggests that mammals experienced a major adaptive radiation during the Middle to Late Jurassic [1]. Patterns of mammalian macroevolution must be reinterpreted in light of these new discoveries [1-3], but only taxonomic diversity and limited aspects of morphological disparity have been quantified [4, 5]. We assess rates of morphological evolution and temporal patterns of disparity using large datasets of discrete characters. Rates of morphological evolution were significantly elevated prior to the Late Jurassic, with a pronounced peak occurring during the Early to Middle Jurassic. This intense burst of phenotypic innovation coincided with a stepwise increase in apparent long-term standing diversity [4] and the attainment of maximum disparity, supporting a short-fuse model of early mammalian diversification [2, 3]. Rates then declined sharply, and remained significantly low until the end of the Mesozoic, even among therians. This supports the long-fuse model of diversification in Mesozoic therians. Our findings demonstrate that sustained morphological innovation in Triassic stem-group mammals culminated in a global adaptive radiation of crown-group members during the Early to Middle Jurassic.