  The globular cluster population in M87 has decreased measurably through
dynamical evolution caused by relaxation, binary heating and time-dependent
tidal perturbation. For fundamental plane ellipticals in general, cluster
populations evolve more rapidly in smaller galaxies because of the higher mass
density. A simple evolutionary model reproduces the observed trend in specific
frequency with luminosity for an initially constant relationship.
  Fits of theoretically evolved populations to M87 cluster data from McLaughlin
et al. (1994) show the following: 1) dynamical effects drive evolution in the
initial mass and space distributions and can account for the large core in the
spatial profile as well as producing radial-dependence in the mass spectrum; 2)
evolution reduces S_N by 50% within 16 kpc and 35% within 50 kpc, implying that
S_N was initially 26 in this region. We estimate that 15% of the `missing'
clusters lie below the detection threshold with mass less than 10^5 M_sun.
