Article
Biology
Shengnan Chen, Ying Jiang, Long Jin, Wenbo Liao
Summary: Testis asymmetry in anuran species was studied to test the packaging and compensation hypotheses. The results showed a positive correlation between testes size asymmetry and livers mass, supporting the packaging hypothesis; and a positive relationship between postcopulatory sperm competition and the degree of testes asymmetry, supporting the role of sexual selection. However, no effect of developmental stress on testes size asymmetry was found, inconsistent with the compensation hypothesis.
Article
Biology
Jennie R. Sims, Vitor M. Faca, Catalina Pereira, Carolline Ascencao, William Comstock, Jumana Badar, Gerardo A. Arroyo-Martinez, Raimundo Freire, Paula E. Cohen, Robert S. Weiss, Marcus B. Smolka
Summary: The kinase ATR plays a crucial role in mammalian meiosis by promoting meiotic progression and coordinating key events in DNA repair and quality control. This study used phosphoproteomics to identify ATR signaling events and found ATR-dependent phosphorylation in DNA repair proteins and mRNA regulatory proteins. The study also highlighted the importance of ATR signaling in the proper localization of CDK2 in spermatocytes.
Article
Biology
Joanna Baker, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti
Summary: The authors introduce an approach using rates of evolutionary change to test whether twelve candidate genes have driven testis size evolution across tetrapod vertebrates. Results reveal five genes that have played unique and complex roles in tetrapod testis size diversity, with significant associations between the rate of protein-coding substitutions and testis size evolution. This new approach has the potential to build a picture of how natural selection has sculpted phenotypic change over millions of years.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Francisco J. Gonzalez-Pinilla, Claudio Latorre, Maisa Rojas, John Houston, M. Ignacia Rocuant, Antonio Maldonado, Calogero M. Santoro, Jay Quade, Julio L. Betancourt
Summary: Late Quaternary precipitation dynamics in the central Andes are influenced by high- and low-latitude atmospheric teleconnections. By studying the relationship between fecal pellet diameters from ashy chinchilla rats and mean annual rainfall, researchers reconstructed pluvials in the Atacama Desert over the past 16,000 years and identified different influences on wet episodes from North Atlantic forcing to low-latitude ENSO regime shifts. This study provides insights into future hydroclimatic variability in the central Andes and offers potential for reconstructing past climates using rodent middens in desert ecosystems worldwide.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Han -Yang Lin, Mark John Costello
Summary: This study compared the latitudinal gradients of body size and trophic level of 5,619 marine fish and found that average body size and trophic level were smaller and lower in warmer latitudes, and larger and higher in high latitudes except for the Southern Ocean. Fish species with trophic levels <= 2.80 were dominant in warmer environments. The differences in body size and trophic level between polar regions were attributed to the greater environmental heterogeneity of the Arctic compared to Antarctica. Additionally, fish species' mean maximum body size declined with depth due to decreased dissolved oxygen. Temperature and oxygen are the primary factors affecting marine fishes' biogeography and biological traits at a global scale.
Article
Ecology
Laura Anna Maehn, Christian Hof, Roland Brandl, Stefan Pinkert
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between body size and latitude in odonate insects, specifically damselflies and dragonflies. The results show a weak positive relationship between body length and latitude, but contrasting effects of temperature and resource availability. The study emphasizes the importance of body size in determining species distributions and responses to climate change.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Daniel Sol, Seweryn Olkowicz, Ferran Sayol, Martin Kocourek, Yicheng Zhang, Lucie Marhounova, Christin Osadnik, Eva Corssmit, Joan Garcia-Porta, Thomas E. Martin, Louis Lefebvre, Pavel Nemec
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between animal intelligence and absolute or relative brain size. The results show that the number of neurons in the pallial telencephalon is positively associated with innovation propensity, a major expression of intelligence. The number of neurons is also greater in larger brains and positively covaries with longer post-hatching development periods. These findings contribute to our understanding of the evolutionary bases of the connections between brain and cognition.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2022)
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Sara Ryding, Alexandra McQueen
Summary: Climate change affects tree swallows in various ways, with impacts on adults, juveniles, males, and females, rather than just affecting chick growth.
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jonathan P. Drury, Julien Clavel, Joseph A. Tobias, Jonathan Rolland, Catherine Sheard, Helene Morlon
Summary: The study found that the impact of latitude on morphological evolution is weak and clade- or trait dependent based on analysis of a global avian trait dataset.
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Christine M. Harper, Christopher B. Ruff, Adam D. Sylvester
Summary: This study investigated calcaneal morphology and relative size in humans and nonhuman primates, finding significant differences in calcaneal morphology among species related to body size and locomotor behavior. Humans have larger calcanei relative to estimated body mass compared to nonhuman primates, potentially as an adaptation for bipedalism. Terrestrial taxa exhibit longer calcaneal tubers to adapt to body mass, increasing the lever arm of the triceps surae.
ANATOMICAL RECORD-ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ornithology
Alberto Pina-Ortiz, Jose Alfredo Castillo-Guerrero, Luis Manuel Enriquez-Paredes, Guillermo Fernandez, Salvador Hernandez-Vazquez, Petra Quillfeldt
Summary: The study found that the Red-billed Tropicbird exhibited a body-size cline related to environmental conditions in a south-to-north gradient. This body size variation could be influenced by both abiotic and biotic factors. Furthermore, sexual size dimorphism was more pronounced in colonies with larger body sizes, suggesting that environmental-mediated variation is a crucial factor in sexual size dimorphism.
JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Christopher N. Johnson, John Llewelyn, Vera Weisbecker, Giovanni Strona, Frederik Saltre
Summary: The study indicates that body mass and generation length are the primary factors influencing relative risk in the extinction of Sahul's megafauna, while the actual mechanisms behind the extinction were more likely related to climate change and human prey choice rather than changes in demographic susceptibility.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Zegni Triki, Melisande Aellen, Carel P. van Schaik, Redouan Bshary
Summary: Scientists have been studying the relationship between brain size and cognitive performance across species. They found that while absolute brain size is a good predictor of performance, it needs to be corrected for body size. In primates and teleost fishes, an increase in body size does not lead to changes in cognitive performance. The results suggest that fish and mammalian brain organizations are fundamentally different.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Lieselot A. van Mierlo, Mia Scheffers, Ina Koning
Summary: The study found that higher body satisfaction and more body investment were related to fewer depressive symptoms. The relation between lower body satisfaction and more depressive symptoms was stronger for participants with a lower level of physical activity.
JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shengjie Liu, Shangwen Xia, Donghao Wu, Jocelyn E. Behm, Yuanyuan Meng, Hao Yuan, Ping Wen, Alice C. Hughes, Xiaodong Yang
Summary: This study investigated the distribution and morphological traits of termite diversity globally and in China. It found that termite species richness increased with decreasing latitude, and termite morphological traits showed a latitudinal trend with decreasing body size and leg length at higher latitudes. Temperature, NDVI, and water variables were identified as the most important drivers of termite richness variation, while temperature and soil properties drove the geographic distribution of termite morphological traits. The study's global termite richness map provides a valuable baseline for further ecological analysis.