Evolution of sexual size dimorphism in tetrapods is driven by varying patterns of sex-specific selection on size
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Authors
Slavenko, AlexCooper, Natalie
Meiri, Shai
Murali, Gopal
Pincheira-Donoso, Daniel
Thomas, Gavin H
Issue date
2024-12-23Submitted date
2022-08-07Subject Terms
evolutionevolutionary ecology
phylogenetics
sexual selection
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Abstract - Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is highly prevalent in nature. Several hypotheses aim to explain its evolution including sexual selection, differential equilibrium and ecological niche divergence. Disentangling the causal mechanism behind the evolution of SSD is challenging, as selection arising from multiple pressures on fitness may act simultaneously to generate observed patterns. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to study the evolution of SSD across tetrapods globally. We estimate directional changes in body size evolution, and compare the number, phylogenetic position and magnitude of size changes between sexes. We find evidence that directional changes in size associated with SSD are typically more common in males—even in lineages where females are larger. However, underlying mechanisms differ among lineages—whereas SSD in amphibians becomes more male-biased with greater increases in male size and mammalian SSD becomes more female-biased with greater decreases in male size. Thus, differing mechanisms of directional body size evolution across sexes are essential to explain observed SSD patterns.Citation
Slavenko, A., Cooper, N., Meiri, S. et al. Evolution of sexual size dimorphism in tetrapods is driven by varying patterns of sex-specific selection on size. Nat Ecol Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02600-8Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Nature Ecology & EvolutionType
Journal ArticleItem Description
Copyright © The Author(s) 2024, corrected publication 2025. 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 licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence 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 licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The linked file is the published version of the article.NHM Repository
ISSN
2397-334XEISSN
2397-334Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41559-024-02600-8
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