Journal of Mammalogy

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Journal of Mammalogy 89(4):852-873. 2008
doi: 10.1644/07-MAMM-A-217.1

Patterns of Body and Tail Length and Body Mass in Sciuridae

Virginia Hayssen*

Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA

*Correspondent:

Abstract

For squirrels, physical size varies with ancestry, locomotion, and sex. Body length has little variation associated with subfamilies or tribes but varies significantly among genera within tribes. Thus, patterns in body size among genera represent more recent evolutionary pressures. Flying squirrels weigh less than similarly sized tree or ground squirrels but ecological profile and ancestry are confounded for flying squirrels. Tail length has clear relationships with ecological profile in squirrels. Tail length is shorter in ground squirrels, longer in tree squirrels, and longest in flying squirrels. In addition, in arboreal squirrels, females have longer tails, relative to body length, than those of males. This latter result suggests that reproductive constraints can influence external features of morphology.

submittedJuly 19, 2007; Accepted: February 21, 2008

Keywords: allometry, body size, flying squirrels, gliding locomotion, ground squirrels, tail length, tree squirrels



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Appendix I


table

Physical size data averaged by sex (adult = sex unknown): head-body length in millimeters (body), tail length in millimeters (tail), and body mass in grams (mass). Mass for Marmota camtschatica was added in proof and not used in analysis



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Fig. 1.—Body mass (in log10 g) versus head–body length (in log10 mm) for female sciurids in subfamilies or tribes with >1 genus. Data for males and adults of unknown sex are similar. All genera are listed, even those without data (indicated by no symbol before name in figure). A) Callosciurinae; B) Sciurinae: Pteromyini; C) Sciurinae: Sciurini; D) Xerinae: Marmotini; E) Xerinae: Protoxerini; and F) Xerinae: Xerini

table

Table 1.—Sex-specific equations for predicting body mass (log10 g) from head–body length (log10 mm) for subfamilies and tribes with 3 or more genera: log10 mass = intercept + slope (log10 head–body length). Sex is female (f), male (m), or unknown (u). n is number of species. All equations except for Xerini are statistically significant at P < 0.0005. Equations for Xerini are not significant for males or females individually but are significant at P = 0.01 for adults of unknown sex. The overall equation (n = 232; R2 = 97.2%, F = 3,962.2, d.f. = 2, 231, P < 0.0005) for predicting body mass from body length (hb) in any squirrel is: log10 mass = −4.30 + 2.91(log10 hb) − 0.07(Peteromyini). In this equation, the Pteromyini term is coded 1 if the animal is a flying squirrel and 0 if it is not

Associate Editor was Jane M. Waterman.

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