Ken Toyama

If you are applying to a PhD, don't use an LLM in composing your proposal.

If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you.

Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.

A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree, Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation reduces range size, bu...

Happy to share our latest paper in which we use a new big phylogeny of birds to analyze the relationships between dispersal, geographic range size and diversification rates across all birds. See also post by
‪@sheardcat.bsky.social‬ and @josephtobias.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Both variables contribute to bone strength but cannot be simultaneously maximized. We found that island and mainland species tend to use opposite strategies, possibly due to life history differences.

Evidence supporting an evolutionary trade-off between material properties and architectural design in Anolis lizard long bones Abstract. In biology, “many-to-one mapping” occurs when multiple morphological forms can meet a particular functional demand. Knowledge of this mapping is

Low-density high-hollowness bones vs high density low-hollowness bones in anoles!

academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

First we removed people's names from awards.
Now, we want to remove journal names when referencing people's work.
Soon we will remove people's names from their own papers.

The dehumanization of science.

Beyond Size Dimorphism: The Past, Present, and Future of Rensch’s Rule | The American Naturalist: Vol 205, No 6 Abstract A pattern of allometry in which the degree of male-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD) increases with species body size is known as “Rensch’s rule.” Over the past decades, a growing amount of...

In this new Historical Perspective, Ken S. Toyama describes how the original definition of Rensch's rule, which has been overlooked for decades, can impact the way we study sexual dimorphism. Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My historical perspective on Rensch's rule now Ahead of Print @asn-amnat.bsky.social

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Anole Bites Help Us Rediscover Rensch’s Rule What Rensch (really) found there Rensch’s rule is one of the great macroevolutionary patterns studied by evolutionary biologists. It describes the positive association between male-biased sex…

I wrote a post for @anoleannals.bsky.social about my latest paper with @jblosos.bsky.social @anthony-herrel.bsky.social and Luke Mahler on anole bite force and Rensch's rule. Read it here!
www.anoleannals.org/2025/01/17/a...

Among other things, these results illustrate how looking at allometric patterns of performance dimorphism directly (i.e. testing Rensch's Rule patterns on performance traits) can complement observations based on the traditional Rensch's Rule patterns of body size. Many more details in the paper!

But, consistent with our expectation of a strong sexual selection regime on islands, relative bite force dimorphism is higher in island species when compared to mainland ones, independently of size. This difference is only partly explained by relative head dimorphism being higher in island species.

Testing Rensch's Rule in bite force showed us that SSD actually explains performance dimorphism very well: on average, males from large species don't get disproportionate performance benefits by getting larger.

Beyond size dimorphism: the past, present, and future of Rensch’s Rule ‘Rensch’s Rule’ is known as a pattern of allometry in which the degree of male-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD) increases with species body size. Over the last decades, a growing amount of Rensch’s...

To reconnect patterns of SSD with performance dimorphism we tested Rensch's Rule in bite force performance. Yes! Rensch's Rule is not only a pattern that involves SSD, you can read more about that here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Anoles follow Rensch's Rule, but how does it relate to performance dimorphism?

However, the nature of the relationship between size and performance is rarely directly measured. This implies that an observed Rensch's Rule pattern in body size is actually compatible with different patterns of performance dimorphism.

Rensch's Rule, a famous macroevolutionary pattern, tells us that male-biased SSD increases with species size. A common hypothesis for the emergence of the pattern involves sexual selection: higher dimorphism is driven by males evolving large sizes in order to enhance combat performance.

Sexual size dimorphism as a determinant of fighting performance dimorphism in Anolis lizards Abstract. Rensch’s Rule describes a pattern of interspecific allometry in which sexual size dimorphism (SSD) increases with size among closely related spec

What does sexual size dimorphism (SSD) mean in terms of combat performance differences between the sexes? We explored this question looking at bite force in Anolis lizards in this new @jevbio.bsky.social paper:
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...