Abstract
Body size of organisms is often associated with physiological demands and habitat structure. Several theories and models have been proposed to explain body size trends across geographical space and evolutionary time. It is proposed that herbivores are larger due to their more voluminous digestive system, allowing a longer retention time of the digested material. Simultaneously, for carnivores, it is expected that the bigger the prey, the larger the predator. Additionally, some body size trends have been attributed to climatic variation across space and habitat structure. Bergmann’s Rule proposes that larger endotherms inhabit colder areas, once a larger body size promotes better heat retention due to reduced surface/volume ratio. Similarly, aquatic endotherms are larger than expected, due to analogous physiological demands to endotherms living in colder environments. Here we tested whether body size of the Mustelidae clade can be explained by diet, habitat structure or environmental temperature. We performed phylogenetic regressions to assess the relationships between body size and the aforementioned predictors in 53 species of Mustelidae. We found that neither diet nor temperature were related to body size evolution. However, habitat was related to body size, with semi aquatic species being larger. Mechanisms involving thermal inertia, predation pressure, better quality resources close to water and bone density are hypotheses that suggest larger body sizes evolution in semi-aquatic vertebrates. We highlight the importance of considering widely accepted ecological traits for large groups, at lower taxonomic levels, in order to expand our understanding of the maintenance of these standards on different scales.
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We thank Vanessa Cunha and two anonymous reviewers for contributions on earlier drafts of the manuscript; and Callum Evans, Jéssica dos Anjos and Manuel Ruedi for providing photographs. No ethics or permit approvals were required for this research.
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AVR, LAG and LMS and JAFDF conceived the ideas and designed methodology; AVR and LMS collected the data; AVR, LAG and LMS analyzed the data; AVR, LAG, LMS and JAFDF led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Rodrigues, A.V., Grossel, L.A., Servino, L.M. et al. Habitat Drives Body Size Evolution in Mustelidae (Mammalia: Carnivora). Evol Biol 50, 197–205 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-023-09597-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-023-09597-1