Niche suitability affects development: skull asymmetry increases in less suitable areas.

ABSTRACT: For conservation purposes, it is important to take into account the suitability of a species to particular habitats; this information may predict the long-term survival of a species. In this sense, morphological measures of developmental stress, such as fluctuating asymmetry, can be proxies for an individual's performance in different regions. In this study, we conducted tests to determine whether areas with different levels of suitability for a species (generated by ecological niche models) were congruent with morphological markers that reflect environmental stress and morphological variance. We generated a Maxent niche model and compared the suitability assessments of several areas with the skull morphology data (fluctuating asymmetry and morphological disparity) of populations of the At

SUBMITTER: Maestri R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4398368 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature