Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
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DOI：
10.1126/science.1219233
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发表时间：
2012-02
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
F. Smith
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
F. Smith
一项关于马进化的研究阐明了环境温度和哺乳动物体型之间的联系。体型很重要。它设定了生物体的能量需求，调节生理过程的速率，并影响种群密度和动物群落和种群的其他关键特征（1）。因此，毫不奇怪，大多数动物都有一个特征（2）和高度遗传的大小（3）。然而，哺乳动物谱系的体型在进化史上变化很大。6550万年前恐龙的灭绝标志着陆生哺乳动物形态和生态的迅速多样化，最终导致体型增加了四个数量级以上。在本期的第959页，Secord等人（4）说明了温度在2.555亿至5450万年前驱动身体大小进化的关键作用。
A study of horse evolution illustrates the connection between environmental temperature and mammal body size. Body size matters. It sets the energetic demands of organisms, regulates the rates of physiological processes, and influences population densities and other key characteristics of animal communities and populations (1). Thus, it is no surprise that most animals have a characteristic (2) and highly heritable size (3). Yet the body sizes of mammal lineages have varied greatly over evolutionary history. The demise of dinosaurs ∼65.5 million years ago marked the onset of rapid morphological and ecological diversification in terrestrial mammals that ultimately led to size increases of more than four orders of magnitude. On page 959 of this issue, Secord et al. (4) illustrate the critical role of temperature in driving body size evolution between ∼55.5 and 54.5 million years ago.