10.5061/DRYAD.2280GB5RZ
Wolff, Jonas
0000-0003-2326-0326
Macquarie University
Wierucka, Kaja
Macquarie University
Coddington, Jonathan
Smithsonian Institution
Hormiga, Gustavo
George Washington University
Kelly, Michael
Macquarie University
Herberstein, Marie
Macquarie University
Ramírez, Martín
Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum
Paterno, Gustavo
University of Göttingen
Stabilized morphological evolution of spiders despite mosaic changes in
foraging ecology
Dryad
dataset
2021
FOS: Biological sciences
Macquarie University
https://ror.org/01sf06y89
Macquarie University Research Fellowship
Australian Research Council
https://ror.org/05mmh0f86
DE190101338
Australian Research Council
https://ror.org/05mmh0f86
DP170101617
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
EAR-0228699
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
EAR-0228699
Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo
Tecnológico y la Innovación
https://ror.org/03stxzb56
PICT-2017-0289
2022-03-24T00:00:00Z
2022-03-24T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syac023
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6192506
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5772110
1124082 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
A prominent question in animal research is how the evolution of morphology
and ecology interact in the generation of phenotypic diversity. Spiders
are some of the most abundant arthropod predators in terrestrial
ecosystems and exhibit a diversity of foraging styles. It remains unclear
how spider body size and proportions relate to foraging style, and if the
use of webs as prey capture devices correlates with changes in body
characteristics. Here we present the most extensive dataset to date of
morphometric and ecological traits in spiders. We used this dataset to
estimate the change in spider body sizes and shapes over deep time and to
test if and how spider phenotypes are correlated with their behavioural
ecology. We found that phylogenetic variation of most traits best fitted
an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model, which is a model of stabilizing selection. A
prominent exception was body length, whose evolutionary dynamics were best
explained with a Brownian Motion (free trait diffusion) model. This was
most expressed in the araneoid clade (ecribellate orb-weaving spiders and
allies) that showed bimodal trends towards either miniaturization or
gigantism. Only few traits differed significantly between ecological
guilds, most prominently leg length and thickness, and although a
multivariate framework found general differences in traits among
ecological guilds, it was not possible to unequivocally associate a set of
morphometric traits with the relative ecological mode. Long, thin legs
have often evolved with aerial webs and a hanging (suspended) locomotion
style, but this trend is not general. Eye size and fang length did not
differ between ecological guilds, rejecting the hypothesis that webs
reduce the need for visual cue recognition and prey immobilization. For
the inference of the ecology of species with unknown behaviours, we
propose not to use morphometric traits, but rather consult
(micro-)morphological characters, such as the presence of certain podal
structures. These results suggest that, in contrast to insects, the
evolution of body proportions in spiders is unusually stabilized, and
ecological adaptations are dominantly realized by behavioural traits and
extended phenotypes in this group of predators. This work demonstrates the
power of combining recent advances in phylogenomics with trait-based
approaches to better understand global functional diversity patterns
through space and time.