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Roycroft E, Ford F, Ramm T, Schembri R, Breed WG, Burns PA, Rowe KC, Moritz C. Speciation across biomes: Rapid diversification with reproductive isolation in the Australian delicate mice. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e17301. [PMID: 38385302 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Phylogeographic studies of continental clades, especially when combined with palaeoclimate modelling, provide powerful insight into how environment drives speciation across climatic contexts. Australia, a continent characterized by disparate modern biomes and dynamic climate change, provides diverse opportunity to reconstruct the impact of past and present environments on diversification. Here, we use genomic-scale data (1310 exons and whole mitogenomes from 111 samples) to investigate Pleistocene diversification, cryptic diversity, and secondary contact in the Australian delicate mice (Hydromyini: Pseudomys), a recent radiation spanning almost all Australian environments. Across northern Australia, we find no evidence for introgression between cryptic lineages within Pseudomys delicatulus sensu lato, with palaeoclimate models supporting contraction and expansion of suitable habitat since the last glacial maximum. Despite multiple contact zones, we also find little evidence of introgression at a continental scale, with the exception of a potential hybrid zone in the mesic biome. In the arid zone, combined insights from genetic data and palaeomodels support a recent expansion in the arid specialist P. hermannsburgensis and contraction in the semi-arid P. bolami. In the face of repeated secondary contact, differences in sperm morphology and chromosomal rearrangements are potential mechanisms that maintain species boundaries in these recently diverged species. Additionally, we describe the western delicate mouse as a new species and recommend taxonomic reinstatement of the eastern delicate mouse. Overall, we show that speciation in an evolutionarily young and widespread clade has been driven by environmental change, and potentially maintained by divergence in reproductive morphology and chromosome rearrangements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Roycroft
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Fred Ford
- Biodiversity Conservation and Science, New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment, Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
- Australian National Wildlife Collection, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Till Ramm
- Zoo Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Rhiannon Schembri
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia
| | - William G Breed
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Phoebe A Burns
- Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kevin C Rowe
- Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Craig Moritz
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
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2
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Roycroft E, Fabre PH, MacDonald AJ, Moritz C, Moussalli A, Rowe KC. New Guinea uplift opens ecological opportunity across a continent. Curr Biol 2022; 32:4215-4224.e3. [PMID: 36057260 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Sahul unites the world's largest and highest tropical island and the oldest and most arid continent on the backdrop of dynamic environmental conditions. Massive geological uplift in New Guinea is predicted to have acted as a species pump from the late Miocene onward, but the impact of this process on biogeography and diversification remains untested across Sahul as a whole. To address this, we reconstruct the assembly of a recent and diverse radiation of rodents (Murinae: Hydromyini) spanning New Guinea, Australia, and oceanic islands. Using phylogenomic data from 270 specimens, including many recently extinct and highly elusive species, we find that the orogeny and expansion of New Guinea opened ecological opportunity and triggered diversification across a continent. After a single over-water colonization from Asia ca. 8.5 Ma, ancestral Hydromyini were restricted to the tropical rainforest of proto-New Guinea for 3.5 million years. Following a shift in diversification coincident with the orogeny of New Guinea ca. 5 Ma and subsequent colonization of Australia, transitions between geographic regions (n = 24) and biomes (n = 34) become frequent. Recurrent over-water colonization between mainland and islands demonstrate how islands can play a substantial role in the assembly of continental fauna. Our results are consistent with a model of increased ecological opportunity across Sahul following major geological uplift in New Guinea ca. 5 Ma, with sustained diversification facilitated by over-water colonization from the Pleistocene to present. We show how geological processes, biome transitions, and over-water colonization collectively drove the diversification of an expansive continental radiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Roycroft
- School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia; Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia.
| | - Pierre-Henri Fabre
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (ISEM, UMR 5554 CNRS-IRD-UM), Université de Montpellier, Place E. Bataillon, CC 064, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France; Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
| | - Anna J MacDonald
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia; The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Craig Moritz
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Adnan Moussalli
- Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
| | - Kevin C Rowe
- Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
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3
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Slater GJ. Topographically distinct adaptive landscapes for teeth, skeletons, and size explain the adaptive radiation of Carnivora (Mammalia). Evolution 2022; 76:2049-2066. [PMID: 35880607 PMCID: PMC9546082 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Models of adaptive radiation were originally developed to explain the early, rapid appearance of distinct modes of life within diversifying clades. Phylogenetic tests of this hypothesis have yielded limited support for temporally declining rates of phenotypic evolution across diverse clades, but the concept of an adaptive landscape that links form to fitness, while also crucial to these models, has received more limited attention. Using methods that assess the temporal accumulation of morphological variation and estimate the topography of the underlying adaptive landscape, I found evidence of an early partitioning of mandibulo-dental morphological variation in Carnivora (Mammalia) that occurs on an adaptive landscape with multiple peaks, consistent with classic ideas about adaptive radiation. Although strong support for this mode of adaptive radiation is present in traits related to diet, its signal is not present in body mass data or for traits related to locomotor behavior and substrate use. These findings suggest that adaptive radiations may occur along some axes of ecomorphological variation without leaving a signal in others and that their dynamics are more complex than simple univariate tests might suggest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham J. Slater
- Department of the Geophysical SciencesUniversity of ChicagoChicagoIllinois60637
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4
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Williams JL, Harley D, Watchorn D, McBurney L, Lindenmayer DB. Relationship between body weight and elevation in Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri). AUST J ZOOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1071/zo21042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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5
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Alhajeri BH. Desmodilliscus braueri crania compared to Pachyuromys duprasi (Desmodilliscini, Gerbillinae, Rodentia). MAMMALIA 2021. [DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2021-0036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Molecular phylogenies support the monophyly of Desmodilliscus braueri and Pachyuromys duprasi as a clade basally split from all other gerbillines. While this monophyly supports their placement in a single tribe (Desmodilliscini), no morphological synapomorphies exist among desmodilliscines. This study compares the scale-independent cranial shapes of these two species using geometric morphometrics to determine how they differ and/or converge. Tribal synapomorphies, should they exist, may appear as interspecifically invariable cranial regions. No such invariable cranial regions were detected. The two species significantly differed in cranial size and shape. A small part of shape variation was allometric, with a weak unique allometric effect. No sexual size nor shape dimorphism was found. The sister taxa greatly differed in almost all cranial features, with Pachyuromys (when compared to Desmodilliscus) having a larger-sized cranium, with a larger bulla and suprameatal triangle, a more posteriorly placed palatine foramina, and more anteriorly shifted (and reduced) rostral cranial structures, due to being crowded by the hypertrophied bulla. Cranial variation patterns are consistent with the literature. The extreme morphological divergence among these species is explained by the distant divergence time and ecological differences. Absence of cranial shape synapomorphies does not preclude synapomorphies in other craniodental morphological features (e.g., detailed morphology of the dentition and cranial foramina) or in other morphological structures, such as the postcranial skeleton.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bader H. Alhajeri
- Department of Biological Sciences , Kuwait University , Safat, 13060 , Kuwait
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6
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Museum genomics reveals the rapid decline and extinction of Australian rodents since European settlement. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2021390118. [PMID: 34183409 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2021390118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Australia has the highest historically recorded rate of mammalian extinction in the world, with 34 terrestrial species declared extinct since European colonization in 1788. Among Australian mammals, rodents have been the most severely affected by these recent extinctions; however, given a sparse historical record, the scale and timing of their decline remain unresolved. Using museum specimens up to 184 y old, we generate genomic-scale data from across the entire assemblage of Australian hydromyine rodents (i.e., eight extinct species and their 42 living relatives). We reconstruct a phylogenomic tree for these species spanning ∼5.2 million years, revealing a cumulative total of 10 million years (>10%) of unique evolutionary history lost to extinction within the past ∼150 y. We find no evidence for reduced genetic diversity in extinct species just prior to or during decline, indicating that their extinction was extremely rapid. This suggests that populations of extinct Australian rodents were large prior to European colonization, and that genetic diversity does not necessarily protect species from catastrophic extinction. In addition, comparative analyses suggest that body size and biome interact to predict extinction and decline, with larger species more likely to go extinct. Finally, we taxonomically resurrect a species from extinction, Gould's mouse (Pseudomys gouldii Waterhouse, 1839), which survives as an island population in Shark Bay, Western Australia (currently classified as Pseudomys fieldi Waite, 1896). With unprecedented sampling across a radiation of extinct and living species, we unlock a previously inaccessible historical perspective on extinction in Australia. Our results highlight the capacity of collections-based research to inform conservation and management of persisting species.
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Roycroft E, Achmadi A, Callahan CM, Esselstyn JA, Good JM, Moussalli A, Rowe KC. Molecular Evolution of Ecological Specialisation: Genomic Insights from the Diversification of Murine Rodents. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:6275684. [PMID: 33988699 PMCID: PMC8258016 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptive radiations are characterized by the diversification and ecological differentiation of species, and replicated cases of this process provide natural experiments for understanding the repeatability and pace of molecular evolution. During adaptive radiation, genes related to ecological specialization may be subject to recurrent positive directional selection. However, it is not clear to what extent patterns of lineage-specific ecological specialization (including phenotypic convergence) are correlated with shared signatures of molecular evolution. To test this, we sequenced whole exomes from a phylogenetically dispersed sample of 38 murine rodent species, a group characterized by multiple, nested adaptive radiations comprising extensive ecological and phenotypic diversity. We found that genes associated with immunity, reproduction, diet, digestion, and taste have been subject to pervasive positive selection during the diversification of murine rodents. We also found a significant correlation between genome-wide positive selection and dietary specialization, with a higher proportion of positively selected codon sites in derived dietary forms (i.e., carnivores and herbivores) than in ancestral forms (i.e., omnivores). Despite striking convergent evolution of skull morphology and dentition in two distantly related worm-eating specialists, we did not detect more genes with shared signatures of positive or relaxed selection than in a nonconvergent species comparison. Although a small number of the genes we detected can be incidentally linked to craniofacial morphology or diet, protein-coding regions are unlikely to be the primary genetic basis of this complex convergent phenotype. Our results suggest a link between positive selection and derived ecological phenotypes, and highlight specific genes and general functional categories that may have played an integral role in the extensive and rapid diversification of murine rodents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Roycroft
- School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.,Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Anang Achmadi
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biology, Cibinong, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
| | - Colin M Callahan
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA
| | - Jacob A Esselstyn
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Jeffrey M Good
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA.,Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA
| | - Adnan Moussalli
- School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.,Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kevin C Rowe
- School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.,Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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8
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Alhajeri BH. A morphometric comparison of the cranial shapes of Asian dwarf hamsters (Phodopus, Cricetinae, Rodentia). ZOOL ANZ 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcz.2021.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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9
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Marcondes RS, Nations JA, Seeholzer GF, Brumfield RT. Rethinking Gloger's Rule: Climate, Light Environments, and Color in a Large Family of Tropical Birds (Furnariidae). Am Nat 2021; 197:592-606. [PMID: 33908827 DOI: 10.1086/713386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
AbstractEcogeographic rules provide a framework within which to test evolutionary hypotheses of adaptation. Gloger's rule predicts that endothermic animals should have darker colors in warm/rainy climates. This rule also predicts that animals should be more rufous in warm/dry climates, the so-called complex Gloger's rule. Empirical studies frequently demonstrate that animals are darker in cool/wet climates rather than in warm/wet climates. Furthermore, sensory ecology predicts that, to enhance crypsis, animals should be darker in darker light environments. We aimed to disentangle the effects of climate and light environments on plumage color in the large Neotropical passerine family Furnariidae. We found that birds in cooler and rainier climates had darker plumage even after controlling for habitat type. Birds in darker habitats had darker plumage even after controlling for climate. The effects of temperature and precipitation interact so that the negative effect of precipitation on brightness is strongest in cool temperatures. Finally, birds tended to be more rufous in warm/dry habitats but also, surprisingly, in cool/wet locales. We suggest that Gloger's rule results from complementary selective pressures arising from myriad ecological factors, including crypsis, thermoregulation, parasite deterrence, and resistance to feather abrasion.
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10
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Rix MG, Wilson JD, Huey JA, Hillyer MJ, Gruber K, Harvey MS. Diversification of the mygalomorph spider genus Aname (Araneae: Anamidae) across the Australian arid zone: Tracing the evolution and biogeography of a continent-wide radiation. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2021; 160:107127. [PMID: 33667632 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
The assembly of the Australian arid zone biota has long fascinated biogeographers. Covering over two-thirds of the continent, Australia's vast arid zone biome is home to a distinctive fauna and flora, including numerous lineages which have diversified since the Eocene. Tracing the origins and speciation history of these arid zone taxa has been an ongoing endeavour since the advent of molecular phylogenetics, and an increasing number of studies on invertebrate animals are beginning to complement a rich history of research on vertebrate and plant taxa. In this study, we apply continent-wide genetic sampling and one of the largest phylogenetic data matrices yet assembled for a genus of Australian spiders, to reconstruct the phylogeny and biogeographic history of the open-holed trapdoor spider genus Aname L. Koch, 1873. This highly diverse lineage of Australian mygalomorph spiders has a distribution covering the majority of Australia west of the Great Dividing Range, but apparently excluding the high rainfall zones of eastern Australia and Tasmania. Original and legacy sequences were obtained for three mtDNA and four nuDNA markers from 174 taxa in seven genera, including 150 Aname specimen terminals belonging to 102 species-level operational taxonomic units, sampled from 32 bioregions across Australia. Reconstruction of the phylogeny and biogeographic history of Aname revealed three radiations (Tropical, Temperate-Eastern and Continental), which could be further broken into eight major inclusive clades. Ancestral area reconstruction revealed the Pilbara, Monsoon Tropics and Mid-West to be important ancestral areas for the genus Aname and its closest relatives, with the origin of Aname itself inferred in the Pilbara bioregion. From these origins in the arid north-west of Australia, our study found evidence for a series of subsequent biome transitions in separate lineages, with at least eight tertiary incursions back into the arid zone from more mesic tropical, temperate or eastern biomes, and only two major clades which experienced widespread (primary) in situ diversification within the arid zone. Based on our phylogenetic results, and results from independent legacy divergence dating studies, we further reveal the importance of climate-driven biotic change in the Miocene and Pliocene in shaping the distribution and composition of the Australian arid zone biota, and the value of continent-wide studies in revealing potentially complex patterns of arid zone diversification in dispersal-limited invertebrate taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael G Rix
- Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia; Collections and Research Centre, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia.
| | - Jeremy D Wilson
- Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia; Division of Arachnology, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Av. Ángel Gallardo 470 (C1405DJR), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Joel A Huey
- Collections and Research Centre, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Mia J Hillyer
- Collections and Research Centre, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia
| | - Karl Gruber
- Collections and Research Centre, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Mark S Harvey
- Collections and Research Centre, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
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11
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Nations JA, Mount GG, Morere SM, Achmadi AS, Rowe KC, Esselstyn JA. Locomotory mode transitions alter phenotypic evolution and lineage diversification in an ecologically rich clade of mammals. Evolution 2021; 75:376-393. [PMID: 33370843 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Revised: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The relationship between organismal function and form is a cornerstone of biology because functional diversity is key to generating and maintaining ecological diversity. Morphological changes often occur in unison with behavioral or ecological transitions, and this process may foster diversification, but alternately could trap a species on an adaptive peak. We estimated the most comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis of Murinae, a young (∼15 million years) and diverse (∼700 species) clade of mammals. We then tested for correlated evolution among four morphological traits with potential links to locomotor modes (Arboreal, General, Terrestrial, and Amphibious), then investigated the effects of locomotion on morphological and lineage diversification. We found unique combinations of trait values for each locomotor mode, including strong covariance between the tail and hindfoot lengths of specialized Arboreal and ecologically flexible General species. Low diversification rates and long branch lengths suggest that specialized lineages represent stable evolutionary "cul-de-sacs." General species, characterized by the classic "rat-like" body plan and broad locomotor abilities, have narrow optimal trait values and slow phenotypic evolution, but high lineage diversification rates. Our findings suggest that versatile, generalist forms act as seeds of species diversity and morphological specialization, which together build ecologically diverse radiations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan A Nations
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803
| | - Genevieve G Mount
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803
| | - Sara M Morere
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803
| | - Anang S Achmadi
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, Cibinong, Jawa Barat, 16911, Indonesia
| | - Kevin C Rowe
- Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia
| | - Jacob A Esselstyn
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803
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12
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Westover ML, Smith FA. Investigating the role of environment in pika (Ochotona) body size patterns across taxonomic levels, space, and time. J Mammal 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyaa041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Body size is an important trait in animals because it influences a multitude of additional life history traits. The causal mechanisms underlying body size patterns across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic hierarchies are debated, and of renewed interest in this era of climate change. Here, we tested multiple hypotheses regarding body mass patterns at the intraspecific and interspecific levels. We investigated body size patterns within a climate-sensitive small mammal species, Ochotona princeps (n = 2,873 individuals), across their range with local environmental variables. We also examined body mass of populations over time to determine if body size has evolved in situ in response to environmental change. At the interspecific level we compared the mean mass of 26 pika species (genus Ochotona) to determine if environmental temperatures, food availability, habitat variability, or range area influence body size. We found correlations between temperature, vegetation, and particularly precipitation variables, with body mass within O. princeps, but no linear relationship between body size and any climate or habitat variable for Ochotona species. Body size trends in relation to climate were stronger at the intraspecific than the interspecific level. Our results suggest that body size within O. princeps likely is related to food availability, and that body size evolution is not always a viable response to temperature change. Different mechanisms may be driving body size at the interspecific and intraspecific levels and factors other than environment, such as biotic interactions, may also be influential in determining body size over space and time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie L Westover
- Department of Biology, MSC03 2020, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Felisa A Smith
- Department of Biology, MSC03 2020, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
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13
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El-Deeb O, Skeels A, Brennan I. Digest: The evolutionary relationship between environment and size in Australian rodents. Evolution 2019; 74:694-695. [PMID: 31883268 DOI: 10.1111/evo.13909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Biome shifts are thought to be relatively rare, but some clades shift among starkly different environments with relative ease. What causes these shifts, and how do they shape phenotypic evolution? Roycroft et al. found that biome shifts in the Pseudomys Division of murid rodents were repeatedly accompanied by body size evolution in accordance with Bergmann's rule, suggesting adaptive evolution in response to changing climate conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omar El-Deeb
- Department of Biology, Western University, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Alexander Skeels
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia
| | - Ian Brennan
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia
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