ArticleNature ecology & evolution2023
Body size and life history shape the historical biogeography of tetrapods.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Spatial Patterns of Intraspecific Genetic Diversity Follow no General Rule Across Climatic and Geographic Gradients.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Uncovering the drivers of anuran age structure.Frontiers in zoology · 2026Article
- Life history optimization and the macroevolution of mammal body size.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Understanding the biogeographic processes behind the accumulation of modern-day marine biodiversity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Niche Differences in Coexisting Species: Ecological Insights Into the Role of Activity Patterns, Space Use, and Environmental Preferences.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- A global biogeographic regionalization for butterflies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Age Structure and Body Size of the Plateau Brown Frog (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Dispersal across biogeographic barriers is a key process determining global patterns of biodiversity as it allows lineages to colonize and diversify in new realms. Here we demonstrate that past biogeographic dispersal events often depended on species' traits, by analysing 7,009 tetrapod species in 56 clades. Biogeographic models incorporating body size or life history accrued more statistical support than trait-independent models in 91% of clades. In these clades, dispersal rates increased by 28-32% for lineages with traits favouring successful biogeographic dispersal. Differences between clades in the effect magnitude of life history on dispersal rates are linked to the strength and type of biogeographic barriers and intra-clade trait variability. In many cases, large body sizes and fast life histories facilitate dispersal success. However, species with small bodies and/or slow life histories, or those with average traits, have an advantage in a minority of clades. Body size-dispersal relationships were related to a clade's average body size and life history strategy. These results provide important new insight into how traits have shaped the historical biogeography of tetrapod lineages and may impact present-day and future biogeographic dispersal.
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