Body Size Variation in Italian Lesser Horseshoe Bats Rhinolophus hipposideros over 147 Years: Exploring the Effects of Climate Change, Urbanization and Geography.

摘要: Body size in animals commonly shows geographic and temporal variations that may depend upon several environmental drivers, including climatic conditions, productivity, geography species interactions. The topic of body trends across time has gained momentum recent years since this been proposed as a third universal response to climate change along with changes distribution phenology. However, disentangling the genuine effects from those other factors is often far trivial. In study, we tested set hypotheses concerning variation space Italian populations rhinolophid bat, lesser horseshoe bat Rhinolophus hipposideros. We examined forearm length (FAL) cranial linear traits unique historical collection covering 1869 2016, representing, best our knowledge, longest series ever considered morphological assessment species. No occurred, rejecting varied or urbanization (light pollution). found FAL increased latitude following Bergmann’s rule trend, whereas width upper incisors, likely diet-related trait, showed an opposite pattern which awaits explanation. also confirmed sexually dimorphic ruled out insularity any detectable effect on considered. This suggests positive responses do not mean per se concurring are expected. Further investigations should explore occurrence these patterns over larger spatial scales more order detect existence general space.