Surprisingly, little is known about body‐size evolution within the most diverse amphibian order, anurans (frogs and toads), despite known effects of body size on the physiological, ecological and life‐history traits of animals more generally. Here, we examined anuran body‐size evolution among 2,434 species with over 200 million years of shared evolutionary history. We found clade‐specific evolutionary shifts to new body‐size optima along with numerous independent transitions to gigantic and miniature body sizes, despite the upper limits of anuran body size remaining quite consistent throughout the fossil record. We found a weak, positive correlation between a species’ body size and maximum latitude and elevation, including a dearth of small species at higher elevations and broader latitudinal and elevational ranges in larger anurans. Although we found modest differences in mean anuran body size among microhabitats, there was extensive overlap in the range of body sizes across microhabitats. Finally, we found that larger anurans are more likely to consume vertebrate prey than smaller anurans are and that species with a free‐swimming larval phase during development are larger on average than those in which development into a froglet occurs within the egg. Overall, anuran body size does not conform to geographic and ecological patterns observed in other tetrapods but is perhaps more notable for variation in body size within geographic regions, ecologies and life histories. Here, we document this variation and propose target clades for detailed studies aimed at disentangling how and why variation in body size was generated and is maintained in anurans.

中文翻译：

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与地理、生态和生活史相关的 2 亿年无尾蜥体型演变

令人惊讶的是，尽管已知体型对动物的生理、生态和生活史特征有更普遍的影响，但对最多样化的两栖动物目无尾目（青蛙和蟾蜍）的体型进化知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了具有超过 2 亿年共同进化历史的 2,434 个物种之间的无尾猿体型进化。我们发现进化枝特定的进化转变为新的最佳体型，以及向巨大和微型体型的许多独立过渡，尽管在整个化石记录中无尾猿体型的上限保持相当一致。我们发现物种的体型与最大纬度和海拔之间存在微弱的正相关，包括海拔较高的小型物种缺乏以及较大的无尾类动物的纬度和海拔范围更广。尽管我们发现微生境中无尾蜥的平均体型存在适度差异，但微生境中的体型范围存在广泛的重叠。最后，我们发现较大的无尾类比较小的无尾类更可能捕食脊椎动物猎物，并且在发育过程中处于自由游动幼虫阶段的物种平均比在卵内发育成蛙类的物种大。总体而言，无尾猿的体型不符合在其他四足动物中观察到的地理和生态模式，但可能更值得注意的是地理区域、生态和生活史中体型的变化。在这里，我们记录了这种变化，并提出了详细研究的目标进化枝，旨在解开无尾目动物体型变化的产生方式和原因。