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Do Geographic Range Sizes Evolve Faster in Endotherms?

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Abstract

Changes in geographical distributions underlie a variety of fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes, from allopatric speciation to local extinction. However, little is known about general principles governing the evolution of range sizes at macroevolutionary scales. In this study we measure rates of geographical range size and position in a large-scale dataset of nearly 20,000 species including mammals, birds, squamates and anurans to test three predictions regarding the relationship between endothermy and geographical range evolution, namely whether endotherms show (1) larger geographical ranges; (2) faster rates of range size evolution; and (3) faster changes in the geographical position of their ranges. We found evidence in favor of all of these predictions, suggesting that the evolution of endothermy was associated with a fundamental change in the tempo of range evolution in terrestrial vertebrates. These results are consistent with two previously hypothesized relationships between range size and metabolic rate: the thermal plasticity hypothesis, which suggests that high metabolic rate increases thermal tolerance, and the energy constraint hypothesis, which posits that due to the higher, sustained levels of energy requirements, individuals with high metabolic rates would necessitate to forage farther and to space themselves more broadly, which would result in lower population densities, larger home ranges and ultimately larger range sizes. On the other hand, there was substantial variation in rates of range size evolution among the studied taxa that cannot be explained by the evolution of endothermy alone.

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All analyses were based on publicly available data.

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Acknowledgments

We thank J. Fenker, F.C.M.B. Domingos and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript

Funding

MRP was funded by a research fellowship from CNPq (Grant #302904/2020-4). RD was funded through a graduate scholarship from the CAPES (Grant 88887.351866/2019-00). This study was carried out in the context of National Institutes for Science and Technology (INCT) in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, supported by MCTIC/CNPq (Proc. 465610/2014-5) and FAPEG (Proc. 201810267000023).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, C.P 19020, Curitiba, PR, 81531-990, Brazil

    Marcio R. Pie, Raquel Divieso & Fernanda S. Caron

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  1. Marcio R. Pie
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  2. Raquel Divieso
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  3. Fernanda S. Caron
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Contributions

MRP designed the study; RD and FSC collected the data; MRP, RD, and FSC analyzed the data; MRP led the writing.

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Correspondence to Marcio R. Pie.

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Pie, M.R., Divieso, R. & Caron, F.S. Do Geographic Range Sizes Evolve Faster in Endotherms?. Evol Biol 48, 286–292 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-021-09537-x

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