The current study investigates patterns in sexual size dimorphism (SSD) and geographic variation in body size of the Mountain brown frog (Rana macrocnemis), collected from 8 locations in mountainous regions of western Iran. In this study we examine 13 morphometric characters to test the pattern of sexual dimorphism in size and shape using bivariate and multivariate methods. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between body size and altitude (test the Bergmann’s rule in mountain frogs), and we used the log-scaled size of one sex regressing against the log-scaled size of the other sex to test for allometry vs. isometry (Rensch’s rule). Our results indicate that sizes of female characters are significantly larger than male characters and sexual dimorphism occurs not only in body size, but also in body shape. Furthermore, the results implied that females and males tended to be larger in higher altitude (follow the Bergmann’s rule) and variations in SSD of R. macrocnemis do not support the Rensch’s rule and its inverse.
