Posted: April 5th, 2023

Question 1: What ecological and phylogenic factors determine whether or not a ro

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Question 1: What ecological and phylogenic factors determine whether or not a rodent species exhibits patterns of reduced body temperature such as torpor, hibernation and aestivation? One might expect species inhabiting harsh environments or certain lineages to exhibit torpor and hibernation
Small mammals often encounter harsh environmental conditions making activity unfavorable and a waiting strategy preferable.Unfavorable condition can arise by extreme heat on the desert surface or a severe rainstorms for part of a day.During such times, animals retreat to safe environments and sometimes save energy by reducing body temperature and metabolism in state we call torpor.Over weeks and months of poor environmental condtions, food may be scarce. If food cannot be stored, animals can save their fat reserves by lowering body temperature for exends periods in hibernation (cold conditions) or aestivation (warm conditions).
To anwer this first question we need to search the literature across families and species of rodents to see if we can find cases of topor, hibernation and aestivation in different families.The family of rodents are listed on a google spreadsheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I404Pzppv4Q_KM59cPHEE-zeHkXzy7I5zD7mLytOxcs/edit#gid=1869776613
In the third column you can sign up for a family to investigate. Read about the species in wikipedia and in papers you find using google scholar etc.As you read, fill in the accompanying tab in the spreadsheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I404Pzppv4Q_KM59cPHEE-zeHkXzy7I5zD7mLytOxcs/edit#gid=0
Save the papers you read to upload to the folder here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1qQSlmOdGbX15zGIHHfXadqqyIgZQSn5b
as we gather evidence that can be reviewed by colleagues
If all the rodent families are taken when you start the assignment, pick a family that looks like is have many genera and then pick one of the genera that has not been evaluated for your contributions.
Research two species!
The first group aspect of the this exercise is for a second person to also read the papers uploaded to see if they concur with the data in the table.As people do the work I will assign others to check
Question 2: (mechanism)What patterns of the body temperature changes do rodents exhibit during the course of a day and across the seasons.What are the actual body temperature patterns? Fig 1 below taken from Boyles, J.G., Smit, B. and McKechnie, A.E., 2011. A new comparative metric for estimating heterothermy in endotherms. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 84(1), pp.115-123. Show examples of patterns

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