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Authors
Maher, Alice EBurin, Gustavo
Cox, Philip G
Maddox, Thomas W
Maidment, Susannah

Cooper, Natalie
Schachner, Emma R
Bates, Karl T
Issue date
2022-07-27Submitted date
2021-01-27Subject Terms
biomechanicspalaeontology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Abstract - Body size and shape play fundamental roles in organismal function and it is expected that animals may possess body proportions that are well-suited to their ecological niche. Tetrapods exhibit a diverse array of body shapes, but to date this diversity in body proportions and its relationship to ecology have not been systematically quantified. Using whole-body skeletal models of 410 extinct and extant tetrapods, we show that allometric relationships vary across individual body segments thereby yielding changes in overall body shape as size increases. However, we also find statistical support for quadratic relationships indicative of differential scaling in small-medium versus large animals. Comparisons of locomotor and dietary groups highlight key differences in body proportions that may mechanistically underlie occupation of major ecological niches. Our results emphasise the pivotal role of body proportions in the broad-scale ecological diversity of tetrapods.Citation
Maher, A.E., Burin, G., Cox, P.G. et al. Body size, shape and ecology in tetrapods. Nat Commun 13, 4340 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32028-2Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Nature CommunicationsType
Journal ArticleItem Description
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The linked article is the published version if the article.NHM Repository
ISSN
2041-1723EISSN
2041-1723ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41467-022-32028-2
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