What drives the evolution of body size in ectotherms? A global analysis across the amphibian tree of life

作者：Jack V. Johnson, Catherine Finn, Jacinta Guirguis, Luke E. B. Goodyear, Lilly P. Harvey, R.J. Magee, Santiago R. Ron, Daniel Pincheira‐Donoso · 发表于：Global Ecology and Biogeography · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1111/geb.13696 · 被引用次数：27 · 研究领域：Amphibian and Reptile Biology、Species Distribution and Climate Change、Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Abstract Aim The emergence of large‐scale patterns of animal body size is the central expectation of a wide range of (macro)ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. The drivers shaping these patterns include climate (e.g. Bergmann's rule), resource availability (e.g. ‘resource rule’), biogeographic settings and niche partitioning (e.g. adaptive radiation). However, these hypotheses often make opposing predictions about the trajectories of body size evolution. Therefore, whether underlying drivers of body size evolution can be identified remains an open question. Here, we employ the most comprehensive global dataset of body size in amphibians, to address multiple hypotheses that predict patterns of body size evolution based on climatic factors, ecology and biogeographic settings to identify underlying drivers and their generality across lineages. Location Global. Time Period Present. Major Taxa Studied Amphibians. Methods Using a global dataset spanning 7270 (>87% of) species of Anura, Caudata and Gymnophiona, we employed phylogenetic Bayesian modelling to test the roles of climate, resource availability, insularity, elevation, habitat use and diel activity on body size. Results Only climate and elevation drive body size patterns, and these processes are order‐specific. Seasonality in precipitation and in temperature predict body size clines in anurans, whereas caecilian body size increases with aridity. However, neither of these drivers explained variation in salamander bod...