Communications Biology (Aug 2021)

Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and ecological traits

  • Maggie M. Hantak,
  • Bryan S. McLean,
  • Daijiang Li,
  • Robert P. Guralnick

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02505-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Anthropogenically-driven climate change is responsible for body size decreases in mammals. Using an important dataset of historically-collected data and data from continental-scale survey efforts from the National Ecological Observatory Network, Hantak et al. show that urbanization plays an important role in mediating this dynamic.