10.6078/D10H4Z
Yuan, Michael
0000-0002-0298-0781
University of California, Berkeley
Jung, Catherine
University of California, Berkeley
Wake, Marvalee
University of California, Berkeley
Wang, Ian
University of California, Berkeley
Habitat use, interspecific competition, and phylogenetic history shape the
evolution of claw and toepad morphology in Lesser Antillean anoles
Dryad
dataset
2019
FOS: Biological sciences
2019-12-19T00:00:00Z
2019-12-19T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blz203
371172 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Ecologically functional traits are the product of several, at times
opposing, selective forces. Thus, ecomorphological patterns can be
disrupted locally by biotic interactions such as competition and may not
be consistent across lineages. Here, we studied the evolution of claws and
toepads in relation to macrohabitat (vegetation), use of structural
microhabitat (perch height), and congeneric competition for two
distantly-related Lesser Antillean anole clades: the bimaculatus and
roquet series. We collect univariate and geometric morphometric data from
254 individuals across 22 species to test the hypotheses that (1)
functional morphology should covary with both vegetation and perch height
and that (2) the presence of a competitor may disrupt such covariation.
Our data show predictable associations between morphology and macrohabitat
on single-species islands but not when a congeneric competitor is present.
The outcomes of competition differ between series, however. In the
bimaculatus series, species with a sympatric congener diverge in claw and
toepad traits consistent with functional predictions, whereas roquet
series anoles show either no association between habitat and morphology or
the opposite pattern. Our results demonstrate that ecomorphological
patterns across macrohabitats can be disrupted by competition-driven
microhabitat partitioning and that specific morphological responses to
similar ecological pressures can vary between lineages.