Geography of artiodactyl locomotor morphology as an environmental predictor

Aim: We investigate locomotor function in artiodactyls, represented by calcaneal gear ratio, as it relates to multiple environments. Using an ecometrics approach, we develop a trait-environment model to investigate ecosystem level changes through time and to reconstruct past environments. We apply the trait-environment model to a case study of six sites in Kenya to evaluate changes over the past 100 years.

Location: Global.

Methods: Locomotor morphology was represented by calcaneal gear ratios measured as the overall length of a calcaneum divided by length of its in-lever, i.e. calcaneal tuber. We collected calcaneal gear ratio measurements from skeletal specimens of 157 artiodactyl species in museum collections and used species’ spatial distributions to determine the composition of 47,420 communities globally. For 21,827 communities with three or more species of artiodactyls, we used maximum likelihood to model ecometric relationships between community-level locomotor morphology ...

研究目的：本研究以跟骨传动比（calcaneal gear ratio）作为表征指标，探讨偶蹄目动物的运动功能与多样环境的关联。本研究采用生态计量学（ecometrics）方法，构建性状-环境模型（trait-environment model）以解析不同时间尺度下的生态系统层级变化，并重建古环境。我们将该性状-环境模型应用于肯尼亚6处遗址的案例研究，以此评估过去100年间的环境变迁。
研究区域：全球范围。
研究方法：运动形态特征通过跟骨传动比表征，其计算方式为跟骨（calcaneum）总长度除以其输入杠杆的长度，即跟骨结节（calcaneal tuber）。我们从博物馆馆藏的157种偶蹄目动物的骨骼标本中采集跟骨传动比数据，并借助物种的空间分布数据确定了全球范围内47420个群落的物种组成。针对包含3种及以上偶蹄目物种的21827个群落，我们采用最大似然法（maximum likelihood）构建群落级运动形态与……