Melanism in the cat family has been associated with functions including camouflage, thermoregulation and parasite resistance. Here we investigate a new hypothesis proposing that the evolution of melanism in cats has additionally been influenced by communication functions of body markings. To evaluate this hypothesis, we assembled a species-level data set of morphological (body marks: white marks on the backs of ears) and ecological (circadian activity: arrhythmic/nocturnal, and environmental preference: open/closed) characteristics that could be associated with communication via body markings, and combined these data with a dated molecular phylogeny. Next, we tested the association between melanism and communication, first by relating species’ body marks with their ecological conditions, using a Bayesian implementation of the threshold model. Second, to explore the evolution of characteristics potentially influencing melanism in cat species, we modeled their evolution relative to melanism using models of coordinated vs. independent character changes. Our results suggest that white marks are associated with intraspecific communication between individuals that have non-melanistic phenotypes, as well as towards melanistic individuals (without white marks). The absence of white marks in a melanistic individual tends to be a limiting condition for intraspecific visual communication at night, resulting in an evolutionary dilemma for these species, i.e. to be almost invisible at night, but not to communicate visually. The comparative analysis of several evolutionary models indicated more support for the evolution of melanism being coordinated with the evolution of arrhythmic activity and white marks on the backs of ears.

Landscape dynamics are widely thought to govern the tempo and mode of continental radiations, yet the effects of river network rearrangements on dispersal and lineage diversification remain poorly understood. We integrated an unprecedented occurrence dataset of 4,967 species with a newly compiled, time-calibrated phylogeny of South American freshwater fishes—the most species-rich continental vertebrate fauna on Earth—to track the evolutionary processes associated with hydrogeographic events over 100 Ma. Net lineage diversification was heterogeneous through time, across space, and among clades. Five abrupt shifts in net diversification rates occurred during the Paleogene and Miocene (between 30 and 7 Ma) in association with major landscape evolution events. Net diversification accelerated from the Miocene to the Recent (c. 20 to 0 Ma), with Western Amazonia having the highest rates of in situ diversification, which led to it being an important source of species dispersing to other regions. All regional biotic interchanges were associated with documented hydrogeographic events and the formation of biogeographic corridors, including the Early Miocene (c. 23 to 16 Ma) uplift of the Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira and the Late Miocene (c. 10 Ma) uplift of the Northern Andes and associated formation of the modern transcontinental Amazon River. The combination of high diversification rates and extensive biotic interchange associated with Western Amazonia yielded its extraordinary contemporary richness and phylogenetic endemism. Our results support the hypothesis that landscape dynamics, which shaped the history of drainage basin connections, strongly affected the assembly and diversification of basin-wide fish faunas.

Abstract. Measures of traits are the basis of functional biological diversity. Numerous works consider mean species-level measures of traits while ignoring individual variance within species. However, there is a large amount of variation within species and it is increasingly apparent that it is important to consider trait variation not only between species, but also within species. Mammals are an interesting group for investigating trait-based approaches because they play diverse and important ecological functions (e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, predation, grazing) that are correlated with functional traits. Here we compile a data set comprising morphological and life history information of 279 mammal species from 39,850 individuals of 388 populations ranging from À5.83 to À29.75 decimal degrees of latitude and À34.82 to À56.73 decimal degrees of longitude in the Atlantic forest of South America. We present trait information from 16,840 individuals of 181 species of non-volant mammals (Rodentia, Didelphimorphia, Carnivora, Primates, Cingulata, Artiodactyla, Pilosa, Lagomorpha, Perissodactyla) and from 23,010 individuals of 98 species of volant mammals (Chiroptera). The traits reported include body mass, age, sex, reproductive stage, as well as the geographic coordinates of sampling for all taxa. Moreover, we gathered information on forearm length for bats and body length and tail length for rodents and marsupials. No copyright restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data.

Aim: Inverse latitudinal diversity gradients (i-LDGs), whereby regional richness peaks outside the tropics, have rarely been investigated, and their causes remain unclear.Here, we investigate three prominent explanations, postulating that species-rich regions have had: (1) longer time to accumulate species; (2) faster diversification; and(3) more energy to support species-rich communities. These mechanisms have been shown to explain the tropical megadiversity, and we examine whether they can also explain i-LDG. Location: Global.Time period: Contemporary.Major taxa studied: Amphibians, birds and mammals. Methods:We estimated the time for species accumulation, regional diversification rates and regional energy for six tetrapod taxa (c. 800 species). We quantified the relative effects and interactions among these three classes of variables, using variance partitioning, and confirmed the results across alternative metrics for time (community phylometrics and BioGeoBeARS), diversification rates (BAMM and DR) and regional energy (past and current temperature, and productivity).Results: Although regional richness across each of the six taxa peaked in the temperate region, it varied markedly across hemispheres and continents. The effects of time, diversification rates and regional energy varied greatly from one taxon to another, but high diversification rates generally emerged as the best predictor of high regional richness. The effects of time and regional energy were limited, with the exception of salamanders and cetaceans.Main conclusions: Together, our results indicate that the causes of i-LDG are highly taxon specific. Consequently, large-scale richness gradients might not have a universal explanation, and different causal pathways might converge on similar gradients. Moreover, regional diversification rates might vary dramatically between similar environments and, depending on the taxon, regional richness might or might not depend