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Inverse Rensch's rule in a frog with female-biased sexual size dimorphism

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Abstract

Rensch's rule claims that sexual size dimorphism (SSD) increases with body size when males are larger but decreases with body size when males are smaller. Chinese wood frog Rana chensinensis is a medium-sized species with female-biased size dimorphism. Using data on body size and age in 27 populations covering the full known size range of the species, we tested the consistency of allometric relationships between the sexes with Rensch's rule and evaluated the hypothesis that SSD is largely a function of age differences between the sexes. The results showed that level of female-biased SSD increased with increasing mean size, supporting the inverse of Rensch's rule. Moreover, most of the variation in SSD can be explained in terms of differences in age between the sexes in populations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the three anonymous reviewers for critical comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Financial support was provided by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (31101633).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, People’s Republic of China

    Wen Bo Liao

  2. Institute of Rare Animals and Plants, College of Life Sciences, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, People’s Republic of China

    Wen Bo Liao

  3. Ecological Security and Protection Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Mianyang Normal University, Mianyang, 621000, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Chen

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  1. Wen Bo Liao
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  2. Wei Chen
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Correspondence to Wen Bo Liao.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Liao, W.B., Chen, W. Inverse Rensch's rule in a frog with female-biased sexual size dimorphism. Naturwissenschaften 99, 427–431 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0913-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0913-5

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