Cover letter
Dear chief-editors,
We are delighted to submit our manuscript entitled “Clasp and
dance: Mating mode promotes variable sexual size and shape dimorphism
trajectories in crocodile newts (Caudata: Salamandridae) ” toEcology and Evolution , exclusively.
The knowledge about the evolutionary processes leading to dimorphic
sexes is still somehow cryptic and not fully understood especially in
cold-blooded animal groups which often express only subtle shape
differences between males and females. The enigmatic crocodile newts of
the genera Tylototriton and Echinotriton are on the one
hand morphologically conservative, but on the other hand polymorphic in
their reproductive behaviour and hence, represent a well-suited model
system to investigate evolutionary forces leading to different patterns
of sexual dimorphisms. We carried out a comparative approach on several
species exhibiting different mating behaviours, by applying 3D geometric
morphometrics to the cranium and humerus. Especially, the humerus is of
interest as it plays a major role between the different mating modes.
Our study reveals how the ecology of a species interacts with the
expressed patterns of sexual shape dimorphism in these newts and add
another important piece to the puzzle in understanding the evolution of
sexual dimorphisms.
We are sure our work and the approach used herein is of interest to a
broader audience of evolutionary biologists, ecologists and
morphologists.
We look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Pogoda, Marcus Zuber, Tilo Baumbach and Alexander Kupfer