DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61h6
title: Body size evolution in burying beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae: <em>Nicrophorus</em>)

description: Burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) use small vertebrate carcasses for
 reproduction. Body size varies widely, both within and among species.
 Across species, body size is related to the size of the carcass used for
 reproduction, with larger species tending to use larger carcasses and
 smaller species using smaller ones. Further, body size is known to
 determine the outcome of competitive interactions for carcasses both
 within and among species. Currently, there is no comprehensive analysis of
 what drives these differences in size and how body size is distributed
 within the genus and across its geographic range. Pronotal width
 correlates with overall body size in burying beetles, so we used a large
 dataset of pronotal width measurements and geographical data to evaluate
 the relative importance of phylogeny, biogeography, and ecology in
 explaining body size variation in burying beetles. 1) Mean body size
 distribution among species is broad (4.15–10.97 mm pronotal width) and
 skewed, with more small and medium-bodied species than large species. 2)
 The ancestral body size of the genus was medium (≈ 6.67 mm), and gigantism
 (&gt; 9 mm) evolved at least three times, and small body sizes
 (&lt; 5 mm) evolved at least five times. 3) We found evidence of
 phylogenetic signal in the evolution of body size across the genus,
 although only one instance of sister species being both giants, and no
 instances of sister species being both small. 4) Body size is divergent
 between most sister species and more strongly so between sympatric sister
 species. 5) Species richness and body size distribution covaries—areas
 with higher species richness have a greater spread between the largest and
 smallest species. 6) Smallest body sizes and highest species richness are
 concentrated in northern hemisphere temperate latitudes. Body size
 variation in *Nicrophorus *is driven in part by competitive interactions
 over carcasses, leading to divergence in resource use and corresponding
 beetle body size. High species richness and corresponding wide variation
 in body size in *Nicrophorus *assemblages only occur in temperate
 latitudes of the northern hemisphere. At a large geographic scale,
 character displacement according to body size appears to be an important
 factor in the coexistence of burying beetle species; however, the effects
 of other factors such as phylogeny, predation and parasitism, competition
 from non-nicrophorine species, and abiotic factors such as soil
 characteristics likely contribute to this divergence as well.
description: For each of these assessments, we used a dataset compiled by
 Derek S Sikes that included 12,019 pronotal width measurements from museum
 specimens and 5,247 pronotal widths from the scientific literature for
 70 <em>Nicrophorus</em> species (See Sikes & Venables,
 2013b for a list of museums from which specimens were borrowed). Each
 occurrence was georeferenced with corresponding latitude and longitude.
 Occurrence records from the literature, which lacked pronotal width data,
 were given mean values of the sex of their species, if known, or of their
 species, if sex was unknown. The full data set (museum + literature) was
 used to fill in gaps for the co-occurring species analyses, while only the
 museum data were used for the other analyses.
description: # Body size evolution in burying beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae:
 *Nicrophorus*)
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61h6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61h6) **Data primarily from the PhD research of Derek Sikes, captured between 1996 and 2008.** ## Description of the data and file structure File: NicrophorusBodySize2024.xlsx Description of column headers **specimen ID** Unique specimen identifier on determination labels placed on specimens examined by D. Sikes; prefix corresponds to original (but not necessarily current) depository [public museum or private collection]; see Dryad Repository ([http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mr221](http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mr221)) for more complete specimen data. **species** Nicrophorus species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Silphinae: Nicrophorini) **type** Information on the type status (holotype, lectotype, paratype, etc.), if known. Cells left blank if not known. **storage** Current whereabouts of specimen when last checked (these data are incomplete) **depository** Museum or private collection, or 'literature' if data taken from literature **pronotal width \_mm_** If 'notes' column indicates 'museum specimen' then = digital caliper measurements to (0.01 mm) of pronotal widths for museum (or private collection) specimens measured by D. Sikes; if 'notes' column indicates = 'taken from mean' then these are literature records with geocoordinates that have had pronotal width values of the means of their species, or the sex of the species, if known. **sex** Sex of specimen, if known **decimal latitude** Decimal latitude, in most cases, was georeferenced during 1996-2008 from vague locality place names of specimens lacking geocoordinates on their data labels. Three major sources were used to geo-reference records (associate geocoordinates with names of localities): The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online ([http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/](http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/)), The Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer Server ([http://fat-albert.alexandria.ucsb.edu:8827/gazetteer/](http://fat-albert.alexandria.ucsb.edu:8827/gazetteer/)), and the GEOnet Names Server ([http://gnpswww.nima.mil/geonames/GNS/index.jsp](http://gnpswww.nima.mil/geonames/GNS/index.jsp)). **lat hemisphere** Latitude hemisphere code (N=North, S=South) **decimal longitude** Decimal longitude (see Decimal latitude) **long hemisphere** Longitude hemisphere code (W=West, E=East) **notes** Information on the source of the pronotal width data (museum/private collection or based on the mean of the species, or the sex, if a literature record)