Effects of latitude and allopatry on body size variation in European water shrews

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Kryštufek ◽  
Aila Quadracci
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
European Water

scholarly journals Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and ecological traits

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie M. Hantak ◽  
Bryan S. McLean ◽  
Daijiang Li ◽  
Robert P. Guralnick
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Thermal Buffering

AbstractAnthropogenically-driven climate warming is a hypothesized driver of animal body size reductions. Less understood are effects of other human-caused disturbances on body size, such as urbanization. We compiled 140,499 body size records of over 100 North American mammals to test how climate and human population density, a proxy for urbanization, and their interactions with species traits, impact body size. We tested three hypotheses of body size variation across urbanization gradients: urban heat island effects, habitat fragmentation, and resource availability. Our results demonstrate that both urbanization and temperature influence mammalian body size variation, most often leading to larger individuals, thus supporting the resource availability hypothesis. In addition, life history and other ecological factors play a critical role in mediating the effects of climate and urbanization on body size. Larger mammals and species that utilize thermal buffering are more sensitive to warmer temperatures, while flexibility in activity time appears to be advantageous in urbanized areas. This work highlights the value of using digitized, natural history data to track how human disturbance drives morphological variation.

scholarly journals The role of local versus biogeographical processes in influencing diversity and body‐size variation in mammal assemblages

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1447-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Carlos S. Lopez ◽  
Marcos S. L. Figueiredo ◽  
Maria Paula de Aguiar Fracasso ◽  
Daniel Oliveira Mesquita ◽  
Ulisses Umbelino Anjos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
Mammal Assemblages

scholarly journals Insights into body size variation in cetaceans from the evolution of body-size-related genes

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingying Sun ◽  
Yanzhi Liu ◽  
Xiaohui Sun ◽  
Yurui Lin ◽  
Daiqing Yin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Body Size Variation

Geographic variation in body size and sexual size dimorphism of North American Ratsnakes (Pantherophis spp. s.l.)

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (11) ◽  
pp. 1196-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett A. DeGregorio ◽  
Gabriel Blouin-Demers ◽  
Gerardo L.F. Carfagno ◽  
J. Whitfield Gibbons ◽  
Stephen J. Mullin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sexual Size Dimorphism ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Complex Species ◽  
Size Dimorphism ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
Female Body Size

Because body size affects nearly all facets of an organism’s life history, ecologists have long been interested in large-scale patterns of body-size variation, as well as why those large-scale patterns often differ between sexes. We explored body-size variation across the range of the sexually dimorphic Ratsnake complex (species of the genus Pantherophis Fitzinger, 1843 s.l.; formerly Elaphe obsoleta (Say in James, 1823)) in North America. We specifically explored whether variation in body size followed latitudinal patterns or varied with climatic variables. We found that body size did not conform to a climatic or latitudinal gradient, but instead, some of the populations with the largest snakes occurred near the core of the geographic range and some with the smallest occurred near the northern, western, and southern peripheries of the range. Males averaged 14% larger than females, although the degree of sexual size dimorphism varied between populations (range: 2%–25%). There was a weak trend for male body size to change in relation to temperature, whereas female body size did not. Our results indicate that relationships between climate and an ectotherm’s body size are more complicated than linear latitudinal clines and likely differ for males and females.

Body size variation in hybrids among populations of European water frogs (Pelophylax esculentus complex) with different breeding systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-371
Author(s):  
Adam Hermaniuk ◽  
Magdalena Czajkowska ◽  
Anetta Borkowska ◽  
Jan R.E. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Parental Species ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
European Water ◽  
Water Frogs ◽  
Population Type ◽  
Pelophylax Esculentus ◽  
European Water Frogs

Abstract In some populations, hybrids reproduce with a parental species by eliminating the genome of this species from their own germline and produce gametes that only contain the genome of the other parental species (sexual host). This mode of reproduction, known as hybridogenesis, leads to a conflict of interest between the two parties because the sexual host should avoid mating with the hybrid to prevent a reduction in reproductive success, whereas the hybrid depends on such matings for survival. We investigated European water frogs (Pelophylax esculentus complex), including hybrids (P. esculentus, genotype LR) and two sexual host species (P. lessonae, LL and P. ridibundus, RR). We hypothesized that to maximize fitness, hybrid males should be morphologically more similar to the sexual host that is preferred by females for successful reproduction. To test this hypothesis, we compared hybrid males in two different population types, L-E (hybrids coexist with LL) and L-E-R (hybrids coexist with both LL and RR). The latter was described in terms of genome composition, sex ratio, and mate choice preferences; the sex ratio of hybrids was significantly male-biased. We found that LR males from the L-E-R populations were significantly larger than those from the L-E, which makes them more similar to P. ridibundus, the largest species within the P. esculentus complex. We suggest that a larger body size of hybrid males may provide a reproductive advantage in the L-E-R population type, where the most common type of pair caught in the breeding season was LR males × RR females.

scholarly journals Temperature‐driven color lightness and body size variation scale to local assemblages of European Odonata but are modified by propensity for dispersal

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 8936-8948
Author(s):  
Daniel Acquah‐Lamptey ◽  
Martin Brändle ◽  
Roland Brandl ◽  
Stefan Pinkert
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Body Size Variation

scholarly journals New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fidelis T Masao ◽  
Elgidius B Ichumbaki ◽  
Marco Cherin ◽  
Angelo Barili ◽  
Giovanni Boschian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Australopithecus Afarensis ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
Northern Tanzania ◽  
The World ◽  
Marked Body ◽  
Considerable Body

Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at Site G and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed for Au. afarensis from both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago.

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