Slavenko, A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3265-7715, Cooper, N. orcid.org/0000-0003-4919-8655, Meiri, S. et al. (3 more authors) (2025) Evolution of sexual size dimorphism in tetrapods is driven by varying patterns of sex-specific selection on size. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 9 (3). pp. 464-473. ISSN 2397-334X
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. 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/. |
Keywords: | Evolution; Evolutionary ecology; Phylogenetics; Sexual selection |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Jan 2025 15:19 |
Last Modified: | 17 Mar 2025 09:59 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41559-024-02600-8 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221500 |