Organisms display a considerable variety of body sizes and shapes, and macroevolutionary
investigations help to understand the evolutionary dynamics behind such variations.
Turtles (Testudinata) show great body size disparity, especially when their rich fossil
record is accounted for. We explored body size evolution in turtles, testing which
factors might influence the observed patterns and evaluating the existence of long-term
directional trends. We constructed the most comprehensive body size dataset for the
group to date, tested for correlation with paleotemperature, estimated ancestral body
sizes, and performed macroevolutionary model-fitting analyses. We found no evidence
for directional body size evolution, even when using very flexible models, thereby
rejecting the occurrence of Cope's rule. We also found no significant effect of paleotemperature
on overall through-time body size patterns. In contrast, we found a significant influence
of habitat preference on turtle body size. Freshwater turtles display a rather homogeneous
body size distribution through time. In contrast, terrestrial and marine turtles show
more pronounced variation, with terrestrial forms being restricted to larger body
sizes, up to the origin of testudinids in the Cenozoic, and marine turtles undergoing
a reduction in body size disparity after the extinctions of many groups in the mid-Cenozoic.
Our results, therefore, suggest that long-term, generalized patterns are probably
explained by factors specific to certain groups and related at least partly to habitat
use.
