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Bergmann’s rule in Microlophus lizards: testing for latitudinal and climatic gradients of body size

View ORCID ProfileKen S. Toyama, View ORCID ProfileChristopher K. Boccia
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.18.476846
Ken S. Toyama
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M4Y 1R5, Canada
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  • For correspondence: ken.toyama@mail.utoronto.ca
Christopher K. Boccia
2Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada
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ABSTRACT

Broadscale environmental gradients exert selection pressures that can result in macroevolutionary patterns of phenotypic diversity. Bergmann’s rule, one of the most studied ecogeographical patterns, states that among related species or populations, larger body sizes should occur at higher latitudes or colder climates given the efficacy of larger sizes to conserve heat. However, there is still much debate regarding the mechanisms that underlie the rule and whether they should be different between endotherms and ectotherms. Here we test for Bergmann’s rule in Microlophus lizards, a genus distributed in western South America and the Galápagos Islands, and test for associations between body size and climatic variables. Our results indicate that mainland Microlophus species follow Bergmann’s rule, meaning that larger species are found towards the southernmost latitudes encompassed by the genus’ distribution. This relationship was similar for males and females, suggesting that patterns of sexual size dimorphism are not driven by differing latitudinal gradients of body size between the sexes. We identified negative associations between body size and temperature, precipitation, and isothermality, meaning that larger species are found in colder, drier, and more thermally variable environments. We discuss the possible mechanisms behind this pattern, the implications of insularity and ecology for the evolution of body size in this genus, and emphasize the need for additional natural history information to allow for the elucidation of the mechanisms behind the patterns presented in this work.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://github.com/chrisboccia/microlophus_bergmann/

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 21, 2022.
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Bergmann’s rule in Microlophus lizards: testing for latitudinal and climatic gradients of body size
Ken S. Toyama, Christopher K. Boccia
bioRxiv 2022.01.18.476846; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.18.476846
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Bergmann’s rule in Microlophus lizards: testing for latitudinal and climatic gradients of body size
Ken S. Toyama, Christopher K. Boccia
bioRxiv 2022.01.18.476846; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.18.476846

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