Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology
E686176
Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology is the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to evolve toward larger body sizes over geological time.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7748053 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology Context triple: [Edward Drinker Cope, notableFor, Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology]
-
A.
Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity
"Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity" is a comprehensive scientific book that explores lizard biology to illuminate broader principles of ecology, evolution, and biodiversity.
-
B.
The Major Features of Evolution
The Major Features of Evolution is a foundational work in evolutionary biology that helped shape the modern evolutionary synthesis by integrating genetics with Darwinian natural selection.
-
C.
The Causes of Evolution
The Causes of Evolution is a foundational 1932 book by geneticist J. B. S. Haldane that helped establish the modern synthesis by mathematically integrating Mendelian genetics with Darwinian natural selection.
-
D.
The Major Transitions in Evolution
The Major Transitions in Evolution is an influential 1995 book by John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry that analyzes how key evolutionary shifts—such as the origins of chromosomes, sex, multicellularity, and social groups—transformed the organization of life.
-
E.
Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography
Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography is an influential ecological theory proposing that biodiversity patterns and species abundances can be explained by assuming ecological equivalence among individuals regardless of species.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology Target entity description: Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology is the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to evolve toward larger body sizes over geological time.
-
A.
Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity
"Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity" is a comprehensive scientific book that explores lizard biology to illuminate broader principles of ecology, evolution, and biodiversity.
-
B.
The Major Features of Evolution
The Major Features of Evolution is a foundational work in evolutionary biology that helped shape the modern evolutionary synthesis by integrating genetics with Darwinian natural selection.
-
C.
The Causes of Evolution
The Causes of Evolution is a foundational 1932 book by geneticist J. B. S. Haldane that helped establish the modern synthesis by mathematically integrating Mendelian genetics with Darwinian natural selection.
-
D.
The Major Transitions in Evolution
The Major Transitions in Evolution is an influential 1995 book by John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry that analyzes how key evolutionary shifts—such as the origins of chromosomes, sex, multicellularity, and social groups—transformed the organization of life.
-
E.
Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography
Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography is an influential ecological theory proposing that biodiversity patterns and species abundances can be explained by assuming ecological equivalence among individuals regardless of species.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
evolutionary hypothesis
ⓘ
macroecological pattern ⓘ |
| analyzedWith |
random walk models with directional trend
ⓘ
statistical models of trait evolution ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
animal lineages
ⓘ
fossil taxa ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
enhanced competitive ability in larger organisms
ⓘ
greater fecundity in larger organisms ⓘ increased predation resistance in larger organisms ⓘ |
| challengedBy | counterexamples of size decrease in some lineages ⓘ |
| concerns |
body size evolution
ⓘ
macroevolutionary trends ⓘ |
| contextDependentOn |
ecological conditions
ⓘ
environmental stability ⓘ resource availability ⓘ |
| contradictedBy | dwarfing events following environmental change ⓘ |
| describes | tendency of animal lineages to evolve larger body size over geological time ⓘ |
| discussedIn | macroevolutionary theory literature ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom | passive increase in maximum size due to variance expansion ⓘ |
| field |
evolutionary biology
ⓘ
paleobiology ⓘ |
| hasImplication |
average body size within a clade may increase through time
ⓘ
evolutionary trends can be directional at macroevolutionary scales ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Edward Drinker Cope’s observations on vertebrate fossils ⓘ |
| involves |
directional selection on body size
ⓘ
ecological advantages of large body size ⓘ trade‑offs associated with large body size ⓘ |
| limitedBy |
extinction risk of large‑bodied species
ⓘ
physiological constraints on maximum body size ⓘ |
| moreStronglySupportedIn |
some mammalian lineages
ⓘ
some marine invertebrate lineages ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Edward Drinker Cope ⓘ |
| notUniversallyObservedIn | all clades ⓘ |
| originatedInCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Bergmann’s rule
ⓘ
macroecological body size distributions ⓘ |
| relevantTo |
ecosystem structure over deep time
ⓘ
extinction selectivity by body size ⓘ understanding long‑term biodiversity patterns ⓘ |
| requiresEvidenceOf | systematic directional increase in mean body size ⓘ |
| status |
empirically debated
ⓘ
hypothesis ⓘ |
| supportedBy | some fossil record analyses ⓘ |
| testedUsing |
fossil time series of body size
ⓘ
phylogenetic comparative methods ⓘ |
| timeScale | geological time ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology Description of subject: Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology is the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to evolve toward larger body sizes over geological time.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.