Additional file 1:

Taxonomic ranks of the taxa under study.

Format: PDF Size: 55KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 2:

Scatterplots of the log of the relative molecular rate variable (y axis) versus the log of the relative biovolume variable (x axis) for each comparison pair. BB and SB represent respectively the bigger and smaller biovolumes; BL_BB and BL_SB represent the branch lengths of the taxon with, respectively, the larger and smaller biovolumes. Dotted lines indicate the median values of the variables. The branch lengths were estimated using three models: NP: no rate partition in the data; CP: codon position partitions for the protein-coding genes; GP: gene partitions for the concatenation of mitochondrial genes. (a): nuclear genes; (b): mitochondrial genes; (c): concatenations of mitochondrial genes.

Format: PDF Size: 175KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 3:

Scatterplots of the log of the relative molecular rate variable (y axis) versus the log of the species number variable (x axis) for each comparison pair. BN and SN represent respectively the bigger and smaller species number; BL_BN and BL_SN represent the branch lengths of the taxon with, respectively, the larger and smaller species number. Dotted lines indicate the median values of the variables. The branch lengths were estimated using three models: NP: no rate partition in the data; CP: codon position partitions for the protein-coding genes; GP: gene partitions for the concatenation of mitochondrial genes. (a): nuclear genes; (b): mitochondrial genes; (c): concatenations of mitochondrial genes.

Format: PDF Size: 176KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 4:

Comparison of body size ratios used in the present study with those used by Thomas et al.[38]. Shown for several taxa are the minimum ratio, the maximum ratio and geometric mean ratio.

Format: PDF Size: 39KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 5:

Branch length estimates and body size values (in mm³). Body size values are taken from Orme et al. [43].

Format: XLS Size: 61KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Microsoft Excel Viewer

Additional file 6:

Branch length estimates and species richness values. Species richness values are taken from Orme et al. [43].

Format: XLS Size: 60KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Microsoft Excel Viewer

Additional file 7:

Pairs used for each gene under analysis. Each sequence that represents a taxon is reported together with its accession number from GenBank with the species it came from. The 25 first pairs represent the original pairs chosen on the metazoan tree (see Figure 1). Because gene sequences are not available for each pair, we chose additional phylogenetically independent pairs for certain genes (pairs 26 to 29). The symbol "-" indicates that gene sequences were not available for either one or both members of a comparison pair.

Format: PDF Size: 211KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 8:

Alignment length before and after removing unalignable sequence. Bases were excised manually in Bioedit [69].

Format: PDF Size: 32KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Additional file 9:

Comparison pairs used for each gene. Each pair used is indicated by an 'X'. Also shown are the total number of comparison pairs used, and the alignment lengths in base pairs.

Format: PDF Size: 41KB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat Reader