Influence of microhabitat, fecundity, and parental care on the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in Caribbean Eleutherodactylus frogs.

ABSTRACT: Rensch's rule suggests that sexual size dimorphism (SSD) increases with species size when males are the larger sex, whereas it decreases when females are the larger sex. However, the process responsible for this pattern remains obscure. SSD can result from sexual selection, such as intrasexual competition for access to mates, or from natural selection, due to resource partitioning or fecundity selection. We studied SSD in Caribbean Eleutherodactylus frogs using phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate the influence of microhabitat, fecundity, and parental care. Our results show that in Caribbean Eleutherodactylus females tend to be larger and, contrary to Rensch's rule, dimorphism increases with species size. SSD was not related to microhabitat use. However, SSD was positively corre

SUBMITTER: Dugo-Cota A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10091758 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature