What is it about?
Allometric models allow us to predict the body mass of extinct species. Body mass is a meaningful trait correlated with lots of biological traits (life history, ecology, and others). We carried out allometric models for Lagomorpha order and we predicted the body mass of three extint species: Prolagus cf. calpensis, Prolagus apricenicus and Nuralagus rex.
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Why is it important?
These are the first allometric models for Lagomorpha. Now, we can estimate the body mass of extinct species and make inferences on their biology.
Perspectives
Body mass is a meaningful trait of animals, sometimes its importance is underestimated. Understanding the ecological patterns of body mass in extinct faunas is very important, because really they are unaltered by human presence.
PhD Blanca Moncunill-Solé
Universidade da Coruna
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The weight of fossil leporids and ochotonids: body mass estimation models for the order Lagomorpha, Journal of Zoology, January 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12209.
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