ArticleNature communications2022
Thermal adaptation best explains Bergmann's and Allen's Rules across ecologically diverse shorebirds.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Optimal duration of whole-body cryostimulation exposure to achieve target skin temperature: influence of body mass index-a randomized cross-over controlled trial.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2024Trial
- Breaking the Rules: Museum Data Reveal Divergent Support for Classic Ecogeographical Rules in North American Flying Squirrels.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Regionally specific and highly pleiotropic loci together mediate skeletal evolution in tropical and temperate house mice.Genetics · 2026Article
- Evolving a Field: Can Evolutionary Theory Provide What the Study of Human Evolution Requires?American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Review
- Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, Structural Variants, and Short Tandem Repeats Capture Distinct Signals of Adaptive Divergence in the Atlantic Puffin.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Molecular Pathogenesis of Avian Splenic Injury Under Thermal Challenge: Integrated Mitigation Strategies for Poultry Heat Stress.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Limited evidence that body size shrinking and shape-shifting alleviate thermoregulatory pressures in a warmer world.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Shrinking body size under climate warming is not associated with selection for smaller individuals in a migratory bird.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Demand-Resource Mismatch Explains Body Shrinkage in a Migratory Shorebird.Global change biology · 2025Article
- An Interspecific Assessment of Bergmann's Rule in Tenebrionid Beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) along an Elevation Gradient.Insects · 2024Article
- Latitudinal gradients and sex differences in morphology of the Black Oystercatcher (Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Viviparity imparts a macroevolutionary signature of ecological opportunity in the body size of female Liolaemus lizards.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Age structure and body size of two Tibetan toad (Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Body size shapes song in honeyeaters.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Climate change and its effects on body size and shape: the role of endocrine mechanisms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Birds are better at regulating heat loss through their legs than their bills: implications for body shape evolution in response to climate.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Temperature-dependent Developmental Plasticity and Its Effects on Allen's and Bergmann's Rules in Endotherms.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Article
- Variation in bill surface area is associated with local climatic factors across populations of the plain laughingthrush.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Ecological predictors of interspecific variation in bird bill and leg lengths on a global scale.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bergmann's and Allen's rules state that endotherms should be larger and have shorter appendages in cooler climates. However, the drivers of these rules are not clear. Both rules could be explained by adaptation for improved thermoregulation, including plastic responses to temperature in early life. Non-thermal explanations are also plausible as climate impacts other factors that influence size and shape, including starvation risk, predation risk, and foraging ecology. We assess the potential drivers of Bergmann's and Allen's rules in 30 shorebird species using extensive field data (>200,000 observations). We show birds in hot, tropical northern Australia have longer bills and smaller bodies than conspecifics in temperate, southern Australia, conforming with both ecogeographical rules. This pattern is consistent across ecologically diverse species, including migratory birds that spend early life in the Arctic. Our findings best support the hypothesis that thermoregulatory adaptation to warm climates drives latitudinal patterns in shorebird size and shape.
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