Consistent trends towards decreasing body size in the aftermath of mass extinctions--Lilliput effects--imply a predictable response among unitary animals to these events. The occurrence of Lilliput effects has yet to be widely tested in colonial organisms, which are of particular interest as size change may potentially occur at the two hierarchical levels of the colony and the individual zooids...

Teeth of primate-like mammals from the Paleogene (“plesiadapiforms”) have been known for at least 130 years (Gervais, 1877). These fossil taxa are generally recognized as being closely related, but not monophyletic (e.g., Gingerich, 1976; Szalay et al., 1987; Beard, 1993a; Silcox, 2001; Bloch and Boyer, 2002a; Bloch et al., 2007) and we maintain that view here. Thus “plesiadapiforms” are referr...