Lemen Cliff A
Division of Mammals, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, 60605, Chicago, IL, USA.
Oecologia. 1978 Jan;35(1):13-19. doi: 10.1007/BF00345538.
The general conclusion of this paper is that heteromyids do not select seed sizes on the basis of their body size. My conclusion comes from the analysis of new data from central New Mexico, analysis of data in the literature on food habits of heteromyids, and a reanalysis of Brown and Lieberman (1973) and Brown (1975). All of these sources agree that no seed size selection exists.Although no pattern of simple seed size selection was found, interesting differences were noticed among species. First, the tendency to husk appears to be related to the size of the rodent. Second, large heteromyids may depend on fruiting heads made up of small seeds. This may or may not have significance to the coexistece of heteromyid communities. At present, insufficient data are available to make conclusions along these lines.Intuitively satisfying hypotheses, such as seed size allocation by heteromyids, are normally very hard to lay to rest. It is my hope that this paper demonstrates the weight of evidece is against seed size allocation in heteromyids. Those who wish to maintain this hypothesis, or reveal that it or related hypotheses have anything to do with heteromyid coexistence, must now produce data to support their position.
本文的总体结论是，更格卢鼠不会根据自身体型来选择种子大小。我的结论来自对新墨西哥州中部新数据的分析、对更格卢鼠食性文献数据的分析，以及对布朗和利伯曼（1973年）及布朗（1975年）研究的重新分析。所有这些资料都表明不存在种子大小选择的情况。
虽然未发现简单的种子大小选择模式，但在不同物种间注意到了有趣的差异。首先，去壳的倾向似乎与啮齿动物的体型有关。其次，大型更格卢鼠可能依赖由小种子组成的果穗。这可能对更格卢鼠群落的共存有意义，也可能没有。目前，尚无足够数据沿此方向得出结论。
直观上令人满意的假设，比如更格卢鼠对种子大小的分配，通常很难被摒弃。我希望本文能证明证据的分量不利于更格卢鼠对种子大小的分配。那些希望维持这一假设，或揭示它或相关假设有助于更格卢鼠共存的人，现在必须拿出数据来支持他们的观点。
