These findings suggest that competitive biotic processes can play an important role in shaping the evolutionary history of mammalian orders, acting in hand with abiotic processes such as changes in climate. “We see this pattern today across numerous eco-regions, suggesting that there is an evolutionary ‘ceiling’ placed on lagomorphs by their ungulate competitors,” explains Tomiya. The team lastly went through the lagomorph fossil record in North America, discovering that the best predictor for maximum body size was that of the smallest contemporaneous ungulate. “We next compared how much energy is used by populations of lagomorphs and ungulates relative to their body sizes,” continues Tomiya, “finding that lagomorphs weighing more than six kilograms are energetically at a competitive disadvantage to ungulates of the same size.” The scientists began by analyzing ecological factors, discovering that the body sizes of ungulates - hoofed animals - are the most influential predictor. We were surprised by this, and so began to investigate what sort of external forces keep wild lagomorphs across the world from evolving larger body sizes.” “But some breeds of domestic rabbits and other extinct species can weigh up to 8 kg. “The largest living wild lagomorphs weigh only about 5 kg on average, a tenth of the largest living rodent, the capybara,” says first author Susumu Tomiya. Metaphorically unfolding as an evolutionary play in an ecological theater as might have been envisioned by ecologist G. Depiction of both biotic (Red Queen) and abiotic (Court Jester) models of lagomorph body size evolution.
0 kommentar(er)
