Study finds marine animals' average body size has increased 150-fold over millions of years

Talk about a growth spurt.

A new study by Stanford scientists found that over the last 542 million years, the average body size of a marine animal has increased 150-fold, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Published in the journal Science, the findings noted that not all of the animals' body volumes increased, but that the maximum shot up by more than a factor of 100,000. And the scientists looked at a sampling that included 74 percent of the fossil record's animal diversity, the study notes, including animals from all five major phyla.

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What the scientists say is still unclear is whether the evolution is a result of physical or biological factors — or a combination of the two. Another big question to answer.