While species fulfill many different roles in ecosystems, it has been suggested that numer-ous species might actually share the same function in a near neutral way. So-far, however, it is unclear whether such functional redundancy really exists. We scrutinize this question using extensive data on the world’s 4168 species of diving beetles. We show that across the globe these animals have evolved towards a small number of regularly-spaced body sizes, and that locally co-existing species are either very similar in size or differ by at least 35%. Surprisingly, intermediate size differences (10–20%) are rare. As body-size strongly reflects functional aspects such as the food that these generalist predators can eat, these beetles thus form relat...
Changes in morphology are often thought to be linked to changes in species diversification, which is...
The Cope’s rule predicts a tendency for species to evolve towards an increase in size. Recently, it ...
Habitat fragmentation and loss are principal factors that contribute to the decline of biodiversity ...
While species fulfill many different roles in ecosystems, it has been suggested that numerous specie...
The theory of limiting similarity predicts that co-occurring species must be sufficiently different ...
The theory of limiting similarity predicts that co-occurring species must be sufficiently different ...
Body size is a key biological trait, influencing the biomechanics, physiology, behaviour, and ecolog...
Experiments to date probing adaptive evolution have predominantly focused on studying a single speci...
Efforts to characterize food webs have generated two influential approaches that reduce the complexi...
The most pervasive macroecological patterns concern (1) the frequency distribution of range size, (2...
Body size is a multi-functional trait related to various fitness components, but the relative import...
We report a detection of a surprising similarity in the diet of predators across distant phyla. Thou...
Abstract 1. Ecogeographical rules refer to recurring patterns in nature, including the latitudinal ...
Chapter 7 published in part as Cioffi et al. 2016. Biology Letters 12 (6).Whilst the geographical ra...
Changes in morphology are often thought to be linked to changes in species diversification, which is...
The Cope’s rule predicts a tendency for species to evolve towards an increase in size. Recently, it ...
Habitat fragmentation and loss are principal factors that contribute to the decline of biodiversity ...
While species fulfill many different roles in ecosystems, it has been suggested that numerous specie...
The theory of limiting similarity predicts that co-occurring species must be sufficiently different ...
The theory of limiting similarity predicts that co-occurring species must be sufficiently different ...
Body size is a key biological trait, influencing the biomechanics, physiology, behaviour, and ecolog...
Experiments to date probing adaptive evolution have predominantly focused on studying a single speci...
Efforts to characterize food webs have generated two influential approaches that reduce the complexi...
The most pervasive macroecological patterns concern (1) the frequency distribution of range size, (2...
Body size is a multi-functional trait related to various fitness components, but the relative import...
We report a detection of a surprising similarity in the diet of predators across distant phyla. Thou...
Abstract 1. Ecogeographical rules refer to recurring patterns in nature, including the latitudinal ...
Chapter 7 published in part as Cioffi et al. 2016. Biology Letters 12 (6).Whilst the geographical ra...
Changes in morphology are often thought to be linked to changes in species diversification, which is...
The Cope’s rule predicts a tendency for species to evolve towards an increase in size. Recently, it ...
Habitat fragmentation and loss are principal factors that contribute to the decline of biodiversity ...