Data from: Competition and constraint drove Cope's rule in the evolution of giant flying reptiles

The pterosaurs, Mesozoic flying reptiles, attained wingspans of more than
10 m that greatly exceed the largest birds and challenge our understanding
of size limits in flying animals. Pterosaurs have been used to illustrate
Cope’s rule, the influential generalization that evolutionary lineages
trend to increasingly large body sizes. However, unambiguous examples of
Cope’s rule operating on extended timescales in large clades remain
elusive, and the phylogenetic pattern and possible drivers of pterosaur
gigantism are uncertain. Here we show 70 million years of highly
constrained early evolution, followed by almost 80 million years of
sustained, multi-lineage body size increases in pterosaurs. These results
are supported by maximum-likelihood modelling of a comprehensive new
pterosaur data set. The transition between these macroevolutionary regimes
is coincident with the Early Cretaceous adaptive radiation of birds,
supporting controversial hypotheses of bird–pterosaur competition, and
suggesting that evolutionary competition can act as a macroevolutionary
driver on extended geological timescales.