Variability, evolutionary rates, and allometry in dwarfing lineages

Abstract

Evolutionary “dwarfism” or “nanism” is the phenomenon in which a significant decrease in mean body size of a lineage (an ancestral-descendant sequence of populations) occurs through time. A detailed analysis of several Late Quaternary dwarfed marsupial lineages from Australia is given. Based on linear tooth dimensions of the dwarfed lineages, four points are considered: 1) percent dwarfing; 2) evolutionary rates of change of tooth dimensions; 3) variation within lineages before and after dwarfing; and 4) several aspects of multivariate dental allometry. [The lineages includeMacropus titan(fossil)—M. giganteus(Recent) andOsphranter cooperi(fossil)—O. robustus(Recent) in the family Macropodidae (kangaroos), andSarcophilus laniarius(fossil)—S. harrisii(Recent) in the family Dasyuridae (Tasmaniandevil).]Dental measurements led to these conclusions: 1) Species with the largest body size show the greatest size reduction, and the species with the smallest body size change the least. 2) Evolutionary rates for this reduction in Australian lineages are similar to comparable Post-Pleistocene dwarfed lineages in Europe. 3) Tooth width, especially posterior width, changes more rapidly than length. The first molar changes relatively slowly, especially in length. 4) Variability is higher in the dwarfed forms than in the larger ancestors. 5) Multivariate allometric rates of dwarfing are consistent with results for rates of change calculated in darwins for the relation between change in length and maximum width (and less so for the relation between M1 and M4 reduction). This pattern of dwarfing allometry is broadly similar to within-species allometry, and is quite dissimilar to synchronous interspecific allometry.Brief consideration is also given to taxonomy of dwarfing lineages and to problems of concurrent megafaunal extinctions. It is concluded that dwarfism is an adaptive process which is probably the result of a density-dependent factor(s) (i.e. a resource limited system).