A new study published in the journal Science suggests that body size in many species across the animal kingdom is declining.
Researchers reviewed 60 years of data from all over the world and discovered that all kinds of species, from fish to plants and animals, are shrinking over time. Not only are some species smaller than they used to be, but those smaller species seem to be increasingly outcompeting bigger ones.
The researchers looked at 5,000 ecosystems over those 60 years, and found significant changes in 4,300 unique species.
As ecosystems are often structured in terms of species’ size — big animals eat smaller animals which in turn prey on smaller animals — this may present a serious disruption,
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