Viability selection on early body mass and the effect of female body size on fecundity: a study on the leaf‐eared mouse Phyllotis darwini

Abstract

AbstractViability selection and fecundity of size‐related traits has been demonstrated to be strong in vertebrates. In small mammals, both offspring and adult size are important for viability and fecundity, respectively. We studied the role of early phenotypic selection on size attributes and female fecundity in the leaf‐eared mouse (Phyllotis darwini). Our results support that larger females produce more offspring, and since the likelihood of attaining adulthood is similar for different sizes of the females, those larger females also produce more offspring that attain sexual maturity. From the offspring perspective, larger pups at birth have significantly more probability of attaining sexual maturity. However, weaning mass and growth rate did not show any differential survival. Our study suggests that early selection could be important and could prevent further episodes of selection by early culling of the distribution of sizes, and that “effective” fecundity is strongly dependent on the size of the female.