There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Quote:"Our study highlights that body size is linked to dynamic and potentially interdependent ecological factors," said lead author Maya Juman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge. "It is critical to test these patterns in conjunction with one another, and across both space and time. We need to revisit ecogeographical rules in the context of climate change, which may be rewriting them."
"This is the first time a rule reversal like this has been found in any species," said Sargis, professor of anthropology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS), and the study's senior author. "The finding shows that body size variation and responses to changing temperature are much more complex than predicted."
The study also found that the two rules are intertwined. While mainland Northern Treeshrews clearly break Bergmann's rule, island-bound individuals adhered to it, tending to be larger at higher latitudes and smaller at lower latitudes. This means that the island rule is upheld at higher latitudes but reversed in warmer latitudes closer to the equator, the researchers noted.
The researchers suggest that Northern Treeshrews likely aren't the only species that break the body size rules.
"Many traditional tests of Bergmann's rule in living species have ignored time, since up until very recently it was assumed body size can't significantly change over the course of decades, and that's the timescale we're stuck with when it comes to specimen-based research," said study coauthor Link E. Olson, curator of mammals and professor of biology at the University of Alaska Museum and both a curatorial affiliate in mammalogy at the Yale Peabody Museum and a former YIBS Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar. "I think we're in for many more similar surprises."
Conservation - Scientific Papers
