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Clinal and Allometric Variation in the Skull of Sexually Dimorphic Opossums

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Abstract

Three species of sexually-dimorphic opossums are broadly distributed across South America: the habitat generalist Didelphis albiventris, the Atlantic forest-dweller D. aurita, and the Amazonian forest-dweller D. marsupialis. We used 2D geometric morphometrics to quantify skull size and shape variation in the three opossum species and test the hypothesis that degrees of sexual dimorphism and morphological variation should follow a cline across different South American environments. We first detected a strong impact of allometry on skull shape variation especially in males of the three species that tend to show stronger bite force, which is thought to be related to sexual selection. The degree of sexual dimorphism varies in relation to environmental seasonality. The skull of the plastic species, D. albiventris, showed the strongest ecogeographical pattern, showing conformity to Bergmann’s rule. In this species, size increase and shape changes are associated with colder climates and stronger bite force. Skulls of D. marsupialis are moderately impacted by climate, following productivity patterns of tropical regions associated with fruit availability. The most territorial species, D. aurita, has the strongest allometric effect and shows no clinal variation. Our results also support a degree of evolutionary constraint on the skull morphology of the three South American opossums. The black-eared opossums clade exhibits a weak (D. marsupialis) or nonexistent (D. aurita) association between skull morphology and climate. Skull shape changes of D. aurita are allometrically driven while those of the white-eared opossums clade (D. albiventris) vary in relation to the environment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Diego Astúa, Eliécer Gutiérrez, Geruza Melo, and Cristian Dambros for reviewing this manuscript prior to submission. We are grateful to curators and staff of the MCNFZB (M.M. de A. Jardim), MN (J.A. de Oliveira and S.M. Vaz), MPEG (S.M. Aguiar and J.S. Silva Jr.), MHNCI (V. Abilhoa and S.C. Pereira), UFSC (M.E. Graipel), MACN (D.A. Flores and S. Lucero), and MZUSP (M. De Vivo and J.G. Barros) for granting access to specimens and providing support during our visits to their institutions. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 for JMB, CDH and TFB. JMB was also supported by CAPES 194 sandwich PhD program/Process number 88881.189949/2018-01. CM was supported by the British Research Council under the Research Links program (Grant No. 127432108). NCC has a research fellowship in Ecology, granted by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, CCNE, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Jamile Bubadué, Carla Hendges & Thaís Battistella

  2. Laboratório de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, CCNE, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Jamile Bubadué, Carla Hendges, Thaís Battistella, Renan Carvalho & Nilton Cáceres

  3. Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, 28013-602, Brazil

    Jamile Bubadué

  4. Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, 3 Byrom St, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK

    Carlo Meloro

  5. Instituto Federal Farroupilha, Campus Panambi, Rua Erechim, 860, Bairro Planalto, Panambi, Brazil

    Carla Hendges

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  1. Jamile Bubadué
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Correspondence to Jamile Bubadué.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary Data SD1

List of 413 Didelphis specimens used for morphometric analyses, with data on species, museum, record number from museum, sex, geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude in decimal degrees), centroid size (CS), Natural Logarithms of Centroid Size (LnCS), Procrustes Coordinates (C#). Averaged values are bellow each correspondent set of specimens that were added to that average. MCNFZB: Museu de Ciências Naturais da Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, MN: Museu Nacional (PI and CA is for specimens in the museum with no record aside for the collector number), MPEG: Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, MHNCI = Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, UFSC: Coleção Científica do Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos da UFSC, MACN: Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, MZUSP: Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (XLSX 827 kb)

Supplementary Data SD2

Sexual size (SSD) and shape dimorphism (SShD) data separated by species. Central coordinates for each grid are given in decimal degrees. Mean male size (MSize) and female size (FSize) for each grid was calculated by averaging the specimens present in each grid. (DOCX 22 kb)

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Bubadué, J., Meloro, C., Hendges, C. et al. Clinal and Allometric Variation in the Skull of Sexually Dimorphic Opossums. J Mammal Evol 28, 185–198 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-020-09513-w

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