Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape
Within the large order of bats, sexual size dimorphism measured by forearm length and body mass is often female-biased. Several studies have explained this through the effects on load carrying during pregnancy, intrasexual competition, as well as the fecundity and thermoregulation advantages of incr...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5120837 2023-05-15T17:48:39+02:00 Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape O’Mara, M. Teague Bauer, Karla Blank, Dominik Baldwin, Justin W. Dechmann, Dina K. N. 2016-11-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5120837/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27880791 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5120837/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27880791 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 © 2016 O’Mara et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 2016-12-18T01:02:29Z Within the large order of bats, sexual size dimorphism measured by forearm length and body mass is often female-biased. Several studies have explained this through the effects on load carrying during pregnancy, intrasexual competition, as well as the fecundity and thermoregulation advantages of increased female body size. We hypothesized that wing shape should differ along with size and be under variable selection pressure in a species where there are large differences in flight behaviour. We tested whether load carrying, sex differential migration, or reproductive advantages of large females affect size and wing shape dimorphism in the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula), in which females are typically larger than males and only females migrate long distances each year. We tested for univariate and multivariate size and shape dimorphism using data sets derived from wing photos and biometric data collected during pre-migratory spring captures in Switzerland. Females had forearms that are on average 1% longer than males and are 1% heavier than males after emerging from hibernation, but we found no sex differences in other size, shape, or other functional characters in any wing parameters during this pre-migratory period. Female-biased size dimorphism without wing shape differences indicates that reproductive advantages of big mothers are most likely responsible for sexual dimorphism in this species, not load compensation or shape differences favouring aerodynamic efficiency during pregnancy or migration. Despite large behavioural and ecological sex differences, morphology associated with a specialized feeding niche may limit potential dimorphism in narrow-winged bats such as common noctules and the dramatic differences in migratory behaviour may then be accomplished through plasticity in wing kinematics. Text Nyctalus noctula PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 11 11 e0167027 |
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Research Article O’Mara, M. Teague Bauer, Karla Blank, Dominik Baldwin, Justin W. Dechmann, Dina K. N. Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
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Within the large order of bats, sexual size dimorphism measured by forearm length and body mass is often female-biased. Several studies have explained this through the effects on load carrying during pregnancy, intrasexual competition, as well as the fecundity and thermoregulation advantages of increased female body size. We hypothesized that wing shape should differ along with size and be under variable selection pressure in a species where there are large differences in flight behaviour. We tested whether load carrying, sex differential migration, or reproductive advantages of large females affect size and wing shape dimorphism in the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula), in which females are typically larger than males and only females migrate long distances each year. We tested for univariate and multivariate size and shape dimorphism using data sets derived from wing photos and biometric data collected during pre-migratory spring captures in Switzerland. Females had forearms that are on average 1% longer than males and are 1% heavier than males after emerging from hibernation, but we found no sex differences in other size, shape, or other functional characters in any wing parameters during this pre-migratory period. Female-biased size dimorphism without wing shape differences indicates that reproductive advantages of big mothers are most likely responsible for sexual dimorphism in this species, not load compensation or shape differences favouring aerodynamic efficiency during pregnancy or migration. Despite large behavioural and ecological sex differences, morphology associated with a specialized feeding niche may limit potential dimorphism in narrow-winged bats such as common noctules and the dramatic differences in migratory behaviour may then be accomplished through plasticity in wing kinematics. |
format |
Text |
author |
O’Mara, M. Teague Bauer, Karla Blank, Dominik Baldwin, Justin W. Dechmann, Dina K. N. |
author_facet |
O’Mara, M. Teague Bauer, Karla Blank, Dominik Baldwin, Justin W. Dechmann, Dina K. N. |
author_sort |
O’Mara, M. Teague |
title |
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
title_short |
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
title_full |
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
title_fullStr |
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape |
title_sort |
common noctule bats are sexually dimorphic in migratory behaviour and body size but not wing shape |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5120837/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27880791 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 |
genre |
Nyctalus noctula |
genre_facet |
Nyctalus noctula |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5120837/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27880791 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 |
op_rights |
© 2016 O’Mara et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167027 |
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PLOS ONE |
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e0167027 |
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