New paper published in Palaeontology by lab group member Bethany Allen on archosauromorph extinction selectivity across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.
The paper is published online and analyses the traits associated with extinction of archosauromorph tetrapods across the Late Triassic mass extinction. Allen et al. find evidence for a phylogenetic extinction signal where species were more likely to go extinct if their closest relatives also went extinct. However, they find no evidence of a correlation between extinction and body size. In conclusion, there is no evidence that body size or any other measurable trait had a bearing on extinction although the phylogenetic signal suggests selectivity on traits not measured herein.
This work formed the bulk of Bethany’s MSc thesis at the University of Bristol 2016/17.
Well done Bethany!
DeepBio@Leeds 