Empirical evidence for fast temperature-dependent body size evolution in rotifers

Organisms tend to decrease in size with increasing temperature by phenotypic plasticity (the temperature-size rule; ectotherms) and/or genetically (Bergmann’s rule; all organisms). In this study, the evolutionary response of body size to temperature was examined in the cyclically parthenogenetic rotifer Brachionus plicatilis. Our aim was to investigate whether this species, already known to decrease in size with increasing temperature by...