Summary
This project seeks to understand how marine animal body size, and thus biodiversity, have been shaped by environmental change over Earth’s history. By assembling the most comprehensive database of fossil body size measurements spanning the last 575 million years, the project will test whether the appearance of new marine animals follows predictable patterns linked to environmental factors. While most paleontological work has examined why animal taxa disappear, this study focuses on how new taxa originate, filling a fundamental gap in understanding of biodiversity generation. The findings will
