Authors
Claudio Angelini, Giuseppe Sotgiu, Giulia Tessa, Jon Bielby, Stefano Doglio, Marco Favelli, Trenton WJ Garner, Enrico Gazzaniga, Cristina Giacoma, Stefano Bovero
Publication date
2015/1
Journal
Evolutionary ecology
Volume
29
Pages
169-184
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Description
Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is widespread among amphibians, and it is attributed to fecundity selection, invoked for female-biased-SSD species, sexual selection, usually invoked for male-biased-SSD species, or other forms of natural selection. Further, SSD interplays with body size variability at population level. By using a male-biased-SSD newt (Euproctus platycephalus) as model species, we investigated body size and SSD variability across the whole species’ range, the island of Sardinia, looking for the main evolutionary force behind SSD. We found geographic variation of body size and SSD: newts from northern populations were generally larger than those from southern ones, with a larger degree of male biased dimorphism in the former. The mean age of newts varied among populations, but it did not follow any geographical pattern, and it did not differ between sexes. Southern populations …
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