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opencc-by-4.0Mar 2024View details →

Data from: Interactions between sexual signaling, thermoregulation and body size drive ecology and evolution of wing colors in Odonata

This dataset consists of images of the fore and hind wings (and associated metadata) of 4091 individual odonate specimens, and thus over 8000 wings, imaged on a commercially-available Epson desktop flatbed scanner and color-calibrated using a color-checker, comprising the Targeted Odonata Wing Digitization dataset (TOWD; <a href="https://digitizingdragonflies.org/">https://digitizingdragonflies.org/</a>)  The odonates imaged are all from the Nearctic, and represent 343 species.  In this dataset, 47% of images come from the Alabama Museum of Natural History (ALMNH), 19% from the PhD thesis collection of William Kuhn (now housed at the American Museum of Natural History, AMNH), 19% from the collection of the late Michael L. May, and 13% from Jessica Ware’s Rutgers-University Newark collection (now housed at the AMNH).  Files are individual PNGs where transparency is the background.  Metadata includes species, sex, and county.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

The evolution of body size in termites

Termites are social cockroaches. Because non-termite cockroaches are larger than basal termite lineages, which themselves include large termite species, it has been proposed that termites experienced a unidirectional body size reduction since they evolved eusociality. However, the validity of this hypothesis remains untested in a phylogenetic framework. Here, we reconstructed termite body size evolution using head width measurements of 1638 modern and fossil termite species. We found that the unidirectional body size reduction model was only supported by analyses excluding fossil species. Analyses including fossil species suggested that body size diversified along with speciation events and estimated that the size of the common ancestor of modern termites was comparable to that of modern species. Our analyses further revealed that body size variability among species, but not body size reduction, is associated with features attributed to advanced termite societies. Our results suggest that miniaturization took place at the origin of termites, while subsequent complexification of termite societies did not lead to further body size reduction.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

The impact of paleoclimatic changes on body size evolution in marine fishes

Body size is an important species trait, correlating with lifespan, fecundity, and other ecological factors. Over Earth's geological history, climate shifts have occurred, potentially shaping body size evolution in many clades. General rules attempting to summarize body size evolution include Bergmann's rule, which states that species grow to larger sizes in cooler environments and smaller sizes in warmer environments; and Cope's rule, which poses that lineages tend to increase in size over evolutionary time. Tetraodontiform fishes (including pufferfishes, boxfishes, and ocean sunfishes) provide an extraordinary clade to test these rules in ectotherms owing to their exemplary fossil record and the great disparity in body size observed among extant and fossil species. We examined Bergmann's and Cope's rules in this group by combining phylogenomic data (1,103 exon loci from 185 extant species) with 210 anatomical characters coded from both fossil and extant species. We aggregated data layers on paleoclimate and body size from the species examined, then inferred a set of time-calibrated phylogenies using tip-dating approaches for use in downstream comparative analyses of body size evolution using models that incorporate paleoclimatic information. We find strong support for a temperature-driven model in which increasing body size over time is correlated with decreasing oceanic temperatures. On average, extant tetraodontiforms are 2–3 times larger than their fossil counterparts, which otherwise evolved during periods of warmer ocean temperatures. These results provide strong support for both Bergmann's and Cope's rules, trends that are less studied in marine fishes compared to terrestrial vertebrates and marine invertebrates.

Fig. 5 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 5. Comparison of the rostra and posterior portion of the neurocrania in dorsal view of two beaked whales. A. The holotype of Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. (MUAP(MM)-068) from the sea floor off Pisagua, Northern Chile; Plio-Pleistocene. B. The paratype of Ihlengesi saldanhae (SAM PQ 69673) from the sea floor off Saldanha Bay, South Africa; age unknown.

Fig. 1. A in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 1. A. Schematic map providing the position of Pisagua in South America. B. Schematic map of Northern Chile coast around Pisagua and sea floor bathymetry showing approximative discovery locality of the holotype MUAP(MM)-068 cranium of the beaked whale Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. at a depth of 1000 m (star).

Fig. 7 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 7. Body size evolution amongst ziphiids. The tree is the single most parsimonious as presented in Fig. 6. (E) genera with extant species. See text and Lambert et al. (2013: fig. 16) for details.

Fig. 3 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 3. Comparison of the neurocrania and the posterior portion of the rostra in dorsal view in two beaked whales. A. The holotype of Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. (MUAP(MM)-068) from the sea floor off Pisagua, Northern Chile; Plio-Pleistocene. B. The holotype of Ihlengesi saldanhae (SAM PQ 2792) from the sea floor off Saldanha Bay, South Africa; age unknown.

Fig. 4 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 4. Comparison of the crania in anterior view of the holotype of three beaked whales. A. Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. (MUAP(MM)-068) from the sea floor off Pisagua, Northern Chile; Plio-Pleistocene. B. The holotype of Ihlengesi saldanhae (SAM PQ 2792) from the sea floor off Saldanha Bay, South Africa; age unknown. C. The holotype Khoikhoicetus agulhasis (SAM PQ 2678) from the sea floor off Cape Agulhas, South Africa; age unknown. Diagonal lines represent broken surfaces.

Fig. 6 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 6. Single most parsimonious tree of the heuristic search with downweighted homoplastic characters (K = 3) showing the relationships of Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. (in bold) with the other ziphiids. Numbers associated with branches are bootstrap values. (E) genera with extant species. See text, Appendix 1, and Bianucci et al. (2016b) for data matrix and description of characters.

Fig. 8 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 8. Geographic distribution of the main fossils of ziphiids recovered from the seafloor of the Southern Hemisphere. Data from: 1, this study; 2, Ichishima et al. (2017); 3, Bianucci et al. (2006, 2007); 4, Lambert et al. (2018); 5, Gol'din and Vishnyakova (2013).

Fig. 2 in A new diminutive fossil ziphiid from the deep-sea floor off northern Chile and some remarks on the body size evolution and palaeobiogeography of the beaked whales

Fig. 2. Holotype of the beaked whale Ihlengesi changoensis sp. nov. (MUAP(MM)-068) from the sea floor off Pisagua, Northern Chile; Plio-Pleistocene. Cranium in dorsal (A1), right lateral (A2), and ventral (A3) views.

Fig. 2 in Growth dynamics and body size evolution of South American long-necked chelid turtles: A bone histology approach

Fig. 2. Stylopodial bones of chelid turtles sampled in this study, showing the position where the thin sections were obtained (gray bar) and the complete shaft section in each element. A–D. Hydromedusa tectifera Cope, 1869; Recent, La Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. A. MLPR-6291, dorsal view of the left humerus (A1), cross section (A2). B. MLPR-6291, dorsal view of the left femur (B1), cross section (B2). C. MLPR-6411, dorsal view of the right humerus (C1), cross section (C2). D. MLPR-6411, dorsal view of the right femur (D1), cross section (D2). E–G. Yaminuechelys maior (Staesche, 1929); Cerro Hansen, Danian of Salamanca Formation, Chubut Province, Argentina. E. MPEFPV-599, dorsal view of the right humerus (E1), cross section (E2). F. MPEFPV-599, dorsal view of the left femur (F1), cross section (F2). G. MLP-14-9-23-1, dorsal view of the left humerus (G1), cross section (G2). Note that the expansion of the medullary region is higher in Y. maior than in H. tectifera (see discussion in the text).

Fig. 3 in Growth dynamics and body size evolution of South American long-necked chelid turtles: A bone histology approach

Fig. 3. Stylopodial bone histology of chelid turtle Yaminuechelys maior (Staesche, 1929), Cerro Hansen, Danian, Paleocene of Salamanca Formation, Chubut Province, Argentina (Bona and De la Fuente 2005). A. MPEFPV-599, humerus: dorsal (A1), dorsomedial (A2), dorsolateral (A3), and lateral (A4) areas. B. MLP-14-9-23-1, humerus: lateral (B1), dorsal (B2), medial (B3), and ventral (B4) areas. Arrowheads in A1 and B4 indicate lines of arrested growth. C. MPEFPV-599, femur: dorsal (C1), dorsolateral (C2), and ventral (C3, C4) areas. Photographs under normal light (A1, A4, B3), under polarized light (C4), under polarized light with lambda compensator (A2, A3, B1, B2, B4, C1–C3). Abbreviations: LVC, simple longitudinal vascular canals; PFB, parallel-fibered bone; RS, resorption cavities; RVC, simple radial vascular canals; SF, Sharpey's fibres.

Fig. 4 in Growth dynamics and body size evolution of South American long-necked chelid turtles: A bone histology approach

Fig. 4. Stylopodial bone histology of chelid turtle Hydromedusa tectifera Cope, 1869; Recent, La Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. A. MLPR-6474, humerus: dorsolateral (A1) and ventral (A2) areas. B. MLPR-6474, femur: ventral (B1) and dorsal (B2) areas. C. MLPR-6291, humerus: dorsal (C1) and ventral (C2) areas. D. MLPR-6291, femur: lateral (D1) and ventrolateral (D2) areas; annuli, yellow A; zones, green Z. E. MLPR-6411, humerus: dorsal (E1) and ventral (E2) areas. F. MLPR-6411, femur: lateral areas (F1, F2). Arrowheads in E2 and F2 indicate lines of arrested growth. Photographs under normal light (B1, B2, D1, E1, F2), under polarized light (E2), under polarized light with lambda compensator (A1, A2, C1, C2, D2, F1). Abbreviations: LVC, simple longitudinal vascular canals; PFB, parallel-fibered bone; RS, resorption cavities; SF, Sharpey's fibers.

Fig. 1 in Growth dynamics and body size evolution of South American long-necked chelid turtles: A bone histology approach

Fig. 1. Size distribution of chelid turtles represented in two different phylogenetic hypotheses from Maniel et al. (2018). Both topologies recover two alternative hypotheses (orange): the monophyly of the South American chelid clade (A) and the monophyly of the of the long necked chelid turtles (B) see Maniel et al. 2018, for more information). Grey, species smaller than 20 cm; green, 20–60 cm; blue and bold, larger than 60 cm. The size is based on the carapace length.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2020View details →

Concatenated matrix from: Pristimantis trachyblepharis species group, a clade of miniaturized frogs: description of four new species and insights into the evolution of body size within the genus

Matrix in nexus format that include sequences of RAG1 (1 - 600 bp), 16S (601 - 1912 bp), and 12S (1913 - 2819 bp) genes for 347 specimens belonging to the genus Pristimantis, in addition to several specimens of neotropical frog genera as outgroups.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2020View details →

Photographs of live individuals from: Pristimantis trachyblepharis species group, a clade of miniaturized frogs: description of four new species and insights into the evolution of body size within the genus

Photographs in jpg format of live individuals examined for morphological comparisons and descriptions.  <ul> <li>P. albujai (photographs of 28 specimens).</li> <li>P. aquilonaris (photographs of 12 specimens).</li> <li>P. nanus sp. nov. (photographs of 7 specimens).</li> <li>P. pramukae sp. nov. (photographs of 36 specimens).</li> <li>P. trachyblepharis (photographs of 26 specimens).</li> <li>P. ujucami sp. nov. (photographs of 27 specimens).</li> <li>P. ventristellatus sp. nov. (photographs of 26 specimens).</li> </ul> Available photographs of several Unconfirmed Candidate Species (UCS) are also provided.

opencc-zeroApr 2023View details →

Data for: Body size and substrate use affect ventral, but not dorsal, brightness evolution in lizards

Substrate properties can affect the thermal balance of organisms, and the colored integument, alongside other factors, may influence heat transfer via differential absorption and reflection. Dark coloration may lead to higher heat absorption and could be advantageous when substrates are cool (and vice versa for bright coloration), but these effects are rarely investigated. Here, we examined the effect of substrate reflectance, specific heat capacity (cp), and body size on the dorso-ventral brightness using 276 samples from 12 species of cordylid lizards distributed across 26 sites in South Africa. We predicted, and found, that bright ventral colors occur more frequently in low cp (i.e. drier, with little energy needed for temperature change) substrates, especially in larger body-sized individuals, possibly to better modulate heat transfer with the surrounding environment. By contrast, dorsal brightness was not associated with body size nor any substrate thermal property, suggesting selection pressures other than thermoregulation. Ancestral estimation and evolutionary rate analyses suggest that ventral brightness rapidly differentiated within the Cordylinae starting 25 Mya, coinciding with an aridification period, further hinting at a thermoregulatory role for ventral colors. Our study indicates that substrate properties can have a direct role in shaping the evolution of ventral brightness in ectotherms.

publicJul 2025View details →

Data from: Context-dependent body size evolution in lacertid lizards: Differential role of structural habitat and climate across radiations

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