Cope’s rule
E686177
Cope’s rule is an evolutionary hypothesis proposing that animal lineages tend to increase in body size over geological time.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cope’s rule canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7748061 — 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 Context triple: [Edward Drinker Cope, coinedTerm, Cope’s rule]
-
A.
Kleiber
Kleiber is a German surname most famously associated with Carlos Kleiber, one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed orchestral conductors.
-
B.
Hairston–Smith–Slobodkin hypothesis
The Hairston–Smith–Slobodkin hypothesis is an influential ecological theory proposing that predators keep herbivore populations in check, allowing plant biomass to flourish and helping explain why the world is "green."
-
C.
Eldredge
Eldredge is a surname and given name that functions as a spelling variant of Eldridge, borne by various individuals in English-speaking countries.
-
D.
Hamilton's rule
Hamilton's rule is a principle in evolutionary biology that explains how altruistic behavior can evolve when the genetic benefits to related individuals, weighted by relatedness, exceed the costs to the actor.
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E.
Hypsignathus
Hypsignathus is a genus of African megabats best known for the hammer-headed bat, a large fruit bat notable for the male’s distinctive, elongated head and loud vocalizations.
- 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 Target entity description: Cope’s rule is an evolutionary hypothesis proposing that animal lineages tend to increase in body size over geological time.
-
A.
Kleiber
Kleiber is a German surname most famously associated with Carlos Kleiber, one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed orchestral conductors.
-
B.
Hairston–Smith–Slobodkin hypothesis
The Hairston–Smith–Slobodkin hypothesis is an influential ecological theory proposing that predators keep herbivore populations in check, allowing plant biomass to flourish and helping explain why the world is "green."
-
C.
Eldredge
Eldredge is a surname and given name that functions as a spelling variant of Eldridge, borne by various individuals in English-speaking countries.
-
D.
Hamilton's rule
Hamilton's rule is a principle in evolutionary biology that explains how altruistic behavior can evolve when the genetic benefits to related individuals, weighted by relatedness, exceed the costs to the actor.
-
E.
Hypsignathus
Hypsignathus is a genus of African megabats best known for the hammer-headed bat, a large fruit bat notable for the male’s distinctive, elongated head and loud vocalizations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (35)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
evolutionary hypothesis
ⓘ
macroecological pattern ⓘ |
| appliesTo | animal lineages ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
ecological constraints on body size
ⓘ
extinction risk of large-bodied species ⓘ selective advantages of large body size ⓘ |
| challengedBy |
lineages with body size decrease
ⓘ
lineages with body size stasis ⓘ |
| concerns |
body size evolution
ⓘ
macroevolutionary trends ⓘ |
| context |
patterns of diversification and extinction
ⓘ
relationship between body size and fitness ⓘ |
| describes | tendency for body size to increase over geological time ⓘ |
| field |
evolutionary biology
ⓘ
paleontology ⓘ |
| hasDebate |
statistical support in fossil record
ⓘ
universality of body size increase across clades ⓘ |
| hasImplication |
body size distributions of clades may shift over time
ⓘ
evolutionary trends may be directional ⓘ |
| hasLimitation |
detection depends on sampling and methods
ⓘ
not all clades show size increase ⓘ |
| involves |
analysis of fossil time series
ⓘ
comparative methods in phylogenetics ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Edward Drinker Cope ⓘ |
| proposes | lineages tend to evolve larger body sizes ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Bergmann’s rule
ⓘ
macroevolutionary trends in body size ⓘ phyletic size increase ⓘ |
| sometimesClassifiedAs |
empirical generalization from fossil data
ⓘ
evolutionary trend ⓘ |
| studiedUsing |
fossil invertebrate datasets
ⓘ
fossil vertebrate datasets ⓘ statistical models of trait evolution ⓘ |
| supportedBy | some fossil vertebrate lineages ⓘ |
| 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 Description of subject: Cope’s rule is an evolutionary hypothesis proposing that animal lineages tend to increase in body size over geological time.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.