The utility of body size as a functional trait to link the past and present in a diverse reptile clade.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the relationships between functional traits and environment is increasingly important for assessing ecosystem health and forecasting biotic responses to future environmental change. Taxon-free analyses of functional traits (ecometrics) allow for testing the performance of such traits through time, utilizing both the fossil record and paleoenvironmental proxies. Here, we test the role of body size as a functional trait with respect to climate, using turtles as a model system. We examine the influence of mass-specific metabolic rate as a functional factor in the sorting of body size with environmental temperature and investigate the utility of community body size composition as an ecometric correlated to climate variables. We then apply our results to the fossil record of the P

SUBMITTER: Parker AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9964042 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature