Digest: The evolutionary relationship between environment and size in Australian rodents

Abstract

Biome shifts are thought to be relatively rare, but some clades shift among starkly different environments with relative ease. What causes these shifts, and how do they shape phenotypic evolution? Roycroft et al. found that biome shifts in the Pseudomys Division of murid rodents were repeatedly accompanied by body size evolution in accordance with Bergmann's rule, suggesting adaptive evolution in response to changing climate conditions.