Carnivoran postcranial adaptations and their relationships to climate
Carnivoran postcranial adaptations and their relationships to climate
复制标题
食肉动物颅后适应及其与气候的关系
DOI：
10.1111/ecog.01656
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
L. Werdelin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Meachen;R. Dunn;L. Werdelin
鉴于当今气候变化的速度如此之快，了解气候和形态之间的关系是很重要的；然而，在许多哺乳动物群体中，这种关系还没有得到充分的探索。我们使用颅后指数来探索食肉目哺乳动物的气候和形态之间的联系。食肉动物是用于这一分析的一个很好的类群，因为它包括了生活在地球上几乎所有类型的栖息地的各种运动生态的物种。我们测量了来自世界各地的121种食肉动物的头盖骨，结合BIOCLIM数据库和NCEAS古群落工作组的栖息地和气候数据，研究了头盖骨、温度和降水量之间的相关性。我们对这些数据进行了对应分析和多元线性回归分析。我们发现了三个与气候显著相关的颅后指数。肱骨指数(桡骨/肱骨)和肩部力矩(三角胸骨长度/肱骨长度)与气温和降雨量显著相关，而较大的粗隆高度(占股骨长度的比例)与降雨量有关。我们发现，通过气候和运动生态之间的强烈关联，这些指数与气候间接相关。气候和颅后比例之间的这种关系可用于未来的研究：肉食动物地区的古气候重建，以及在气候变化持续时基于特征的物种脆弱性识别。
The relationship between climate and morphology is important to understand in view of the rapid rate of climate change occurring today; however, this relationship has not been fully explored in many mammalian groups. We use postcranial indices to explore the association between climate and morphology in the mammalian order Carnivora. Carnivora is a good group to use for this analysis because it includes species with a variety of locomotor ecologies that live in almost every type of habitat on Earth. We measured postcrania of 121 carnivoran species from around the world, combined with habitat and climate data from the BIOCLIM database and the NCEAS Paleocommunities Working Group to examine correlations between postcrania, temperature and precipitation. We analyzed these data using correspondence analysis and multiple linear regressions. We found three postcranial indices that were significantly correlated with climate. Brachial index (radius/humerus) and shoulder moment (length deltopectoral crest/length humerus) were both significantly associated with temperature and precipitation, while greater trochanter height (as proportion of femur length) was associated with precipitation. We found that these indices were indirectly related to climate via the strong association between climate and locomotor ecologies. This relationship between climate and postcranial proportions can be used in future studies: for paleo-climate reconstruction in carnivore localities and for trait-based identification of species vulnerability as climate change continues.