A test of Rensch’s rule in dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion spp.), a group with female-biased sexual size dimorphism

Stuart‐Fox, Devi

doi:10.1007/s10682-008-9242-8

Cited by 53 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Patterns following Rensch's rule have been consistently reported in various animal taxa (Abouheif and Fairbairn 1997;Colwell 2000;Frynta 2002, 2007;Székely et al 2007;Cox et al 2007;Stephens and Wiens 2009;Davis and Roth 2008), typically in those which are male-larger (Fairbairn 1997;cf. Webb and Freckleton 2007;Stuart-Fox 2009). Although, the even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) are sexually dimorphic and mostly male-larger (Glucksmann 1974;Jarman 1983;Pérez-Barbería et al 2002), previous studies failed to confirm Rensch's rule in this mammalian group (Alexander et al 1979;Abouheif and Fairbairn 1997;Lindenfors et al 2007; for the only exception see Weckerly 1998; but the effect of phylogeny was not controlled in this analysis).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Polák

Frynta

2010

Evol Ecol

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Rensch's rule describes the pattern of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) claiming that in taxa where males are the larger sex, larger species generally exhibit higher male to female body size ratios. Agreement with Rensch's rule is manifested by the slope of the allometric relationship between male and female body size exceeding one. In this paper we have tested the hypothesis that recent rapid evolutionary changes of body size accompanying domestication process and morphological radiation of domestic breeds follow Rensch's rule. We have analyzed literature data on adult body size of males and females in domestic cows, yaks, buffaloes and other bovines (315, 12, 24 and 2 breeds, respectively) and compared it with SSD in 18 wild species/subspecies of the subfamily Bovinae. Male to female body mass ratio in domestic cows (1.48) was fairly comparable to that found in other species of domestic and wild bovines except domestic buffaloes (1.19). In cows we have demonstrated clear positive allometry of male to female body mass ratio (slope 1.21) predicted by Rensch's rule, however, no such clear relationship was found when body mass was replaced by shoulder height. These findings are in agreement with those we have previously reported in other livestock species, goats and sheep.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Polák

Frynta

2010

Evol Ecol

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“…Fairbairn 1997; Abouheif and Fairbairn 1997;Johansson et al 2005;Teder and Tammaru 2005;Stuart-Fox 2009), and have confirmed its validity across a wide range of taxa with malebiased SSD (Abouheif and Fairbairn 1997;Fairbairn 1997;Johansson et al 2005), and also across a small range of taxa with female-biased SSD (Fairbairn 1997;Teder and Tammaru 2005;Stuart-Fox 2009). During recent years, intraspecific tests of Rensch's rule using wild (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Andrew meets Rensch: sexual size dimorphism and the inverse of Rensch’s rule in Andrew’s toad (Bufo andrewsi)

2014

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Variation in sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is a widespread phenomenon and is commonly attributed to variation in sex-specific patterns of selection. According to Rensch's rule, SSD increases with increasing body size when males are the larger sex, and decreases when females are the larger sex. Using data from 17 populations of Andrew's toad (Bufo andrewsi), we tested whether the patterns of SSD conform to Rensch's rule. Using field experiments, we also evaluated the hypothesis that sexual selection favours large male body size and that fecundity selection favours large female body size. The results revealed that the degree of SSD increased with increasing mean size in females, consistent with the inverse of Rensch's rule. Although experiments revealed evidence for a large-male mating advantage, selection for large male size was weak at best, and hence unlikely to be an important source of variation in SSD. However, fecundity selection favouring large females was evident, and likely to explain the observed inverse of Rensch's rule. After correcting male and female body size for age differences, the patterns of SSD remained the same, suggesting that the intra- and interpopulational variation in SSD is not driven by sex differences in age structure. Hence, these findings suggest that the strong fecundity selection favouring large females drives the evolution of female-biased SSD in B. andrewsi, providing an explanation for the inverse of Rensch's rule. As such, the study provides an important addition to the small body of literature that uses an intraspecific approach to demonstrate the inverse of Rensch's rule.

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“…If Rensch's rule is general, as has been suggested (Abouheif and Fairbairn 1997), the implication is that selection on males is the primary cause of both male-biased and femalebiased SSD. Some examples do exist of female-biased SSD driven predominantly by selection on males (Zamudio 1998;Stuart-Fox 2009). Yet natural history suggests that this may not be the case in many clades where females are larger than males and under apparently intense directional (e.g., fecundity) selection, for example, in many anamniotes (Darwin 1871;Williams 1966;Crump 1974;Kaplan and Salthe 1979;Andersson 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlated Evolution of Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism across Higher Taxa

Lisle

Rowe

2013

The American Naturalist

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Empirical evidence suggests that Rensch's rule of allometric scaling of male and female body size, which states that body size divergence is greater across males than across females of a clade, is not universal. In fact, quantitative genetic theory indicates that the sex under historically stronger directional selection will exhibit greater interspecific variance in size. Thus, the pattern of covariance between allometry of male and female body size and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) across related clades allows a test of this causal hypothesis for macroevolutionary trends in SSD. We compiled a data set of published body size estimates from the amphibians, a class with predominantly female-biased SSD, to examine variation in allometry and SSD among clades. Our results indicate that females become the more size-variant sex across species in a family as the magnitude of SSD in that family increases. This rejects Rensch's rule and implicates selection on females as a driver of both amphibian allometry and SSD. Further, when we combine our data into a single analysis of allometry for the class, we find a significant nonlinear allometric relationship between female body size and male body size. These data suggest that allometry changes significantly as a function of size. Our results illustrate that the relationship between female size and male size varies with both the degree of sexual dimorphism and the body size of a clade.

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A test of Rensch’s rule in dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion spp.), a group with female-biased sexual size dimorphism

Cited by 53 publications

References 33 publications

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Andrew meets Rensch: sexual size dimorphism and the inverse of Rensch’s rule in Andrew’s toad (Bufo andrewsi)

Correlated Evolution of Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism across Higher Taxa

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