ArticleScientific reports2019
Seasonal reversible size changes in the braincase and mass of common shrews are flexibly modified by environmental conditions.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- What we can learn from hibernators and other adapted animals about organ transplantation: mechanisms of cold resistance and enhanced regeneration.Protein & cell · 2026Article
- Genomic comparisons and the adaptive basis of brain size plasticity and chromosomal instability in the Eurasian common shrew.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity.eLife · 2025Article
- Captivity alters behaviour but not seasonal brain size change in semi-naturally housed shrews.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Gene expression comparisons between captive and wild shrew brains reveal captivity effects.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Domestication effect of reduced brain size is reverted when mink become feral.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Histological and MRI brain atlas of the common shrew,Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2023Article
- 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.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Winter conditions, not resource availability alone, may drive reversible seasonal skull size changes in moles.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Geographic patterns in seasonal changes of body mass, skull, and brain size of common shrews.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- Seasonal plasticity in the adult somatosensory cortex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Phenotypic Switching Resulting From Developmental Plasticity: Fixed or Reversible?Frontiers in physiology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The growth of the vertebrate skull and brain is usually unidirectional and more or less stops when animals are adult. Red-toothed shrews break this rule. They seasonally shrink and regrow brain and skull size by 20% or more, presumably to save energy when conditions are harsh. The size change is anticipatory of environmental change and occurs in all individuals, but it is unknown whether its extent can be modulated by environmental conditions. We kept shrews under different conditions, monitored seasonal changes in skull size with series of X-rays, and compared them with free ranging animals. We found extensive differences in the pattern of skull size change between experimental groups. Skull size of shrews kept at constant temperature showed a steady decline, while the skull size changes of free ranging shrews and captive individuals exposed to natural temperature regimes were identical. In contrast, body mass never reached the spring values of free ranging shrews in either captive regime. The extent of this adaptive seasonal pattern can thus be flexibly adapted to current environmental conditions. Combining reversible size changes with such strong phenotypic plasticity may allow these small, non-hibernating predators with high metabolic rates to continue being successful in today's changing environments.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.