Bekoff Mare, Diamond Judy, Mitton Jeffry B
Department of Environmental Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, 80309, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Oecologia. 1981 Sep;50(3):386-390. doi: 10.1007/BF00344981.
Empirical associations among co-adapted traits such as body size and patterns of reproduction, development, and behavior are unknown for most animal species, despite numerous theories suggesting otherwise. One way to study these complex relationships is first to consider closely related species and then to generalize findings to other groups. In the present study, relationships among body size, reproductive patterns, development, and sociality were examined in 17 members of the family Canidae (canids). Large canids are more social than smaller species, and offspring of large species achieve independence and tend to breed first at a later age. Large females give birth to absolutely larger young, but relative to their own body weight they allocate fewer resources to bringing a large pup to term. Overall, sexual dimorphism in size is small to moderate, and this is associated with monogamous mating habits and paternal care of young.
尽管有众多理论提出相反观点，但对于大多数动物物种而言，诸如体型与繁殖、发育及行为模式等协同适应性状之间的经验性关联仍是未知的。研究这些复杂关系的一种方法是，首先考虑亲缘关系密切的物种，然后将研究结果推广至其他类群。在本研究中，对犬科（犬类）的17个成员的体型、繁殖模式、发育和社会性之间的关系进行了研究。大型犬类比小型犬类更具社会性，大型物种的后代实现独立并往往在较晚年龄首次繁殖。大型雌性生出的幼崽绝对体型更大，但相对于它们自身的体重，它们为使一只大型幼崽足月出生所分配的资源较少。总体而言，体型上的两性差异较小到中等，这与一夫一妻制的交配习性以及雄性对幼崽的照料有关。
