Body mass and correlated ecological variables in the North American muskrat lineage: evolutionary rates and the tradeoff of large size and speciation potential

Martin, Robert A.

doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1384474

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem elements of potential cost and benefit are influenced by habitat conditions. Therefore, the body mass of wildlife is directly or indirectly affected by habitat conditions, and closely mirrors habitat conditions (Martin 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem

et al. 2023

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The body mass of animals is directly or indirectly affected by multiple ecological factors. However, the effects of ecological factors on the body mass are controversial, and a comprehensive study dealing diverse ecological factors is rare. This study was performed to determine the effects of ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a natural deciduous forest located on Mt Gariwang, Pyeongchang and Jeongseon, South Korea from May 2019 to October 2020. We classified ecological factors into topographic, climatic, cover and demographic factors. Three forest‐dwelling small rodent species, striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius, Korean field mouse A. peninsulae and red‐backed vole Myodes regulus, were captured using the capture–mark–recapture method. The findings showed that the body mass of three rodent species was not regulated by topographic factors. In addition, a high ambient temperature resulted in a heavy body mass for A. agrarius and A. peninsulae, and the A. agrarius body mass was negatively affected by extreme rainfall. The body mass of each rodent species had a specific response to the cover factors: ground vegetation, understory vegetation or downed trees. The three species showed sexual dimorphism and two Apodemus species competed each other. This study reveals that ecological factors affecting body mass differ among species. Our findings contribute to enhancing the understanding of variation in the body mass of animals, particularly small rodents, in response to diverse ecological factors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors are closely linked, and complexly affect the demographic factors (e.g. population size, survival rate and reproductive rate) of wildlife (Lee et al 2018, Martin 2019). Therefore, the ecological factors in various way determine the body mass of wildlife.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem

et al. 2023

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“…Other well-studied rodents of North America have been interpreted similarly (anagenetic changes in a lineage, sometimes with recognizable chronospecies or subspecies). For example, muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are common in the fossil record and what were formerly considered distinct species are now treated as chrono-subspecies in a lineage that evolved greatly over the Pliocene and Pleistocene (Martin et al, 1996;Martin, 2019).…”

Section: Ecological Role and Taxonomic Validity Of Castor Californicusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Miocene to early Pleistocene-aged Castor californicus (Rodentia: Castoridae) to extant beavers and implications for the evolution of Castor in North America

Lubbers,

Samuels

2023

Palaeontol Electron

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The beaver, genus Castor, is represented in North America today by Castor canadensis and in Eurasia by C. fiber. Historically, the fossil Miocene to early Pleistocene-aged North American beaver C. californicus has been considered a distinct species from C. canadensis due to its larger size. In this study, we test the hypothesis that the morphology of Miocene to early Pleistocene-aged fossils of C. californicus differs from that of the extant C. canadensis. Specimens of fossil and extant Castor were compared using 2D geometric morphometrics of skull and dentary material and linear measurements of postcranial material to analyze morphological differences between species and determine whether C. californicus fits within the range of intraspecific variation seen in C. canadensis. Results show that C. canadensis is highly variable in both skull and postcranial morphology, and C. californicus falls largely within the range of variation seen within the extant species. The morphological similarities between the two species suggest that they can be treated as ecological analogs and may represent change in a single species through time, although a rigorous evaluation of whether they are conspecific will require more data.

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Evolvability and Macroevolution: Overview and Synthesis

Jablonski

2022

Evol Biol

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Evolvability is best addressed from a multi-level, macroevolutionary perspective through a comparative approach that tests for among-clade differences in phenotypic diversification in response to an opportunity, such as encountered after a mass extinction, entering a new adaptive zone, or entering a new geographic area. Analyzing the dynamics of clades under similar environmental conditions can (partially) factor out shared external drivers to recognize intrinsic differences in evolvability, aiming for a macroevolutionary analog of a common-garden experiment. Analyses will be most powerful when integrating neontological and paleontological data: determining differences among extant populations that can be hypothesized to generate large-scale, long-term contrasts in evolvability among clades; or observing large-scale differences among clade histories that can by hypothesized to reflect contrasts in genetics and development observed directly in extant populations. However, many comparative analyses can be informative on their own, as explored in this overview. Differences in clade-level evolvability can be visualized in diversity-disparity plots, which can quantify positive and negative departures of phenotypic productivity from stochastic expectations scaled to taxonomic diversification. Factors that evidently can promote evolvability include modularity—when selection aligns with modular structure or with morphological integration patterns; pronounced ontogenetic changes in morphology, as in allometry or multiphase life cycles; genome size; and a variety of evolutionary novelties, which can also be evaluated using macroevolutionary lags between the acquisition of a trait and phenotypic diversification, and dead-clade-walking patterns that may signal a loss of evolvability when extrinsic factors can be excluded. High speciation rates may indirectly foster phenotypic evolvability, and vice versa. Mechanisms are controversial, but clade evolvability may be higher in the Cambrian, and possibly early in the history of clades at other times; in the tropics; and, for marine organisms, in shallow-water disturbed habitats.

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Body mass and correlated ecological variables in the North American muskrat lineage: evolutionary rates and the tradeoff of large size and speciation potential

Cited by 6 publications

References 73 publications

Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem

Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem

Comparison of Miocene to early Pleistocene-aged Castor californicus (Rodentia: Castoridae) to extant beavers and implications for the evolution of Castor in North America

Evolvability and Macroevolution: Overview and Synthesis

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