An important life history trait is body size, which can be affected by environmental and evolutionary factors. Acevedo et al. (2022) examined these relationships in the specious, neotropical genus Pristimantis, which has a distribution across wide latitudinal and elevational ranges. Using body size data for all 584 known Pristimantis, phylogenetic information from 257 species, and information on their environments, the authors found that the body size of males, females, and sexual size dimorphism were correlated with climatic variation associated with heat balance (temperature), water availability (precipitation), and habitat availability (elevation). Additionally, despite the majority of species displaying sexual size dimorphism, their trend ran opposite to Rensch's rule, where males are larger then females. This correlation may be the result of fecundity selection, reproductive energy requirements, or heat balancing. Although separate clades show evidence that they are experiencing different selective pressures, the rate of body size evolution appears to be decelerating as the trait reaches an optimum. As this study provides a case for bioclimatic factors in body size evolution, it is a good launching point to generate future selection and macroevolutionary hypotheses of sexual size dimorphism.

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