Marine turtles are only minimally sexually size dimorphic, a pattern that is distinct from most nonmarine aquatic turtles.
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Turtles have been prominent subjects of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) analyses due to their compact taxonomy, mating systems, and habitat diversity. In prior studies, marine turtles were grouped with fully aquatic non-marine turtles (NMATs). This is interesting because it is well-established that the marine environment imposes a distinct selective milieu on body form of vagile vertebrates, driven by convergent adaptations for energy-efficient propulsion and drag reduction. We generated a comprehensive database of adult marine turtle body sizes (38,569 observations across all species), which we then used to evaluate the magnitude of SSD in marine turtles and how it compares to SSD in NMAT. We find that marine turtles are only minimally sexually size dimorphic, whereas NMAT typically exhibit female-biased SSD. We argue that the reason for this difference is the sustained long-distance swimming that characterizes marine turtle ecology, which entails significant energetic costs incurred by both sexes. Hence, the ability of either sex to allocate proportionately more to growth than the other is likely constrained, meaning that sexual differences in growth and resultant body size are not possible. Consequently, grouping marine turtles with NMAT dilutes the statistical signature of different kinds of selection on SSD and should be avoided in future studies.
