Analyzing thousands of records, researchers reinforce claim that for marine life, bigger has been better for the last 542 million years

Alexandria, VA - Analyzing thousands of records, researchers have reinforced the claim that for marine life, bigger has been better for the last 542 million years. The study examined Cope’s rule - the idea, named for paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, that species evolve to larger sizes over time.

With the help of undergraduate students and high-school interns, the researchers compiled information on five major marine phyla, including arthropods, brachiopods, chordates, echinoderms and mollusks. Find out how much bigger things got in the June issue of EARTH Magazine.

Including several complimentary articles published online every month, EARTH Magazine brings you even more of the science behind the headlines in the full June 2015 Issue now available on the digital newsstand at www.earthmagazine.org. Stories include Travels in Geology: Hiking the Catskill Mountains, Down to Earth: Geophysicist Peter Molnar, and more coverage of the latest research conducted in the sciences.