Title |
Complex body size trends in the evolution of sloths (Xenarthra: Pilosa)
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Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, September 2014
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DOI | 10.1186/s12862-014-0184-1 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Sara Raj Pant, Anjali Goswami, John A Finarelli |
Abstract |
Extant sloths present an evolutionary conundrum in that the two living genera are superficially similar (small-bodied, folivorous, arboreal) but diverged from one another approximately 30 million years ago and are phylogenetically separated by a radiation of medium to massive, mainly ground-dwelling, taxa. Indeed, the species in the two living genera are among the smallest, and perhaps most unusual, of the 50+ known sloth species, and must have independently and convergently evolved small size and arboreality. In order to accurately reconstruct sloth evolution, it is critical to incorporate their extinct diversity in analyses. Here, we used a dataset of 57 species of living and fossil sloths to examine changes in body mass mean and variance through their evolution, employing a general time-variable model that allows for analysis of evolutionary trends in continuous characters within clades lacking fully-resolved phylogenies, such as sloths. |
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