Ecological and evolutionary components of body size: geographic variation of venomous snakes at the global scale
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Data
2009-09
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Resumo
Biogeographical patterns of animal body size and the environmental and evolutionary mechanisms that may be
driving them have been broadly investigated in macroecology, although just barely in ectotherms. We separately
studied two snake clades, Viperidae and Elapidae, and used phylogenetic eigenvector regression and ordinary least
squares multiple regression methods to perform a global grid-based analysis of the extent at which the patterns
of body size (measured for each species as its log10-transformed maximum body length) of these groups are
phylogenetically structured or driven by current environment trends. Phylogenetic relatedness explained 20% of
the across-species size variation in Viperidae, and 59% of that of Elapidae, which is a more recent clade.
Conversely, when we analysed spatial trends in mean body size values (calculated for each grid-cell as the average
size of its extant species), an environmental model including temperature, precipitation, primary productivity (as
indicated by the global vegetation index) and topography (range in elevation) explained 37.6% of the variation of
Viperidae, but only 4.5% of that of Elapidae. These contrasted responses of body size patterns to current
environment gradients are discussed, taking into consideration the dissimilar evolutionary histories of these
closely-related groups. Additionally, the results obtained emphasize the importance of the need to start adopting
deconstructive approaches in macroecology. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the
Linnean Society, 2009, 98, 94–109.
Descrição
v. 98, p. 94-109, 2009.
Palavras-chave
Bergmann’s rule, Ectotherms, Interspecific variation, Model selection, Niche conservatism, Phylogenetic eigenvector regression, Snakes
Citação
TERRIBILE, Levi Carina; OLALLA-TÁRRAGA, Miguel Ángel; DINIZ-FILHO, José Alexandre Felizola; RODRÍGUEZ, Miguel Ángel. Ecological and evolutionary components of body size: geographic variation of venomous snakes at the global scale. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 98, p. 94-109, Sept. 2009. Disponível em: <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2009.01262.x/epdf>.