Fifty years of data show the effects of climate on overall skull size and the extent of seasonal reversible skull size changes (Dehnel's phenomenon) in the common shrew.

ABSTRACT: Global climate change affects many aspects of biology and has been shown to cause body size changes in animals. However, suitable datasets allowing the analysis of long-term relationships between body size, climate, and its effects are rare. The size of the skull is often used as a proxy for overall body size. Skull size does not change much in fully grown vertebrates; however, some high-metabolic small mammals shrink in winter and regrow in spring, including their skull and brain. This is thought to be a winter adaptation, as a smaller brain size reduces energy requirements. Climate could thus affect not only the overall size but also the pattern of the size change, that is, Dehnel's phenomenon, in these animals. We assessed the impact of the changes in climate on the overall skull size a

SUBMITTER: Taylor JRE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9609440 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature