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Body Size Evolution Of Oxyurid (Nematoda) Parasites: The Role Of Hosts, Serge Morand, Pierre Legendre, Scott Lyell Gardner, Jean-Pierre Hugot

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty and Staff Publications

Studying the diversification of body size in a taxon of parasites allows comparison of patterns of variation observed in the parasites with patterns found in free-living organisms. The distributions of body size of oxyurid nematodes (obligate parasites of vertebrates and invertebrates) are lognormally right-skewed, except for male oxyurids in invertebrates which show left-skewed distributions. In these parasitic forms, speciose genera do not have the smallest body sizes. Parasite body size is positively correlated with host body size, the largest hosts possessing the largest parasites. This trend is shown to occur within one monophyletic group of oxyurids, those of Old World …