Macroecology and macroevolution of body size inAnolislizards

Abstract

Body size is one of the most influential traits affecting many ecological and physiological processes across animal and plant taxa. Studies of the environmental factors shaping body size patterns may evaluate either temporal or spatial dimensions. Here, we analyzed body size evolution in the radiation of Anolis lizards across both geographical and temporal dimensions. We used a set of macroecological and macroevolutionary methods to test current and past environmental effects on geographical gradients of body size and its evolutionary rates. First, we test whether a set of current ecological/ physiological hypotheses (heat balance, productivity and seasonality) explains spatial body size gradients. Second, we evaluate how tempo (i.e. evolutionary rates) and mode (i.e. evolutionary process) of body size evolution changed through time and the role of paleo-temperatures on rates of body size evolution during the Cenozoic. We did not find a signature of current environmental variables driving spatial body size gradients. By contrast, we found strong support for a correlation between temperature changes (i.e. climate cooling) during the Cenozoic and rates of body size evolution (i.e. body size diversification). We suggest that patterns of body size evolution in Anolis lizards might be influenced by thermoregulatory behavior across clades and regions.

Hurricane effects on Neotropical lizards span geographic and phylogenetic scales

“…Locality data for the entire genus were drawn from a dataset published by Velasco et al (28). These locality data were collected from multiple sources including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (https://www.…”

“…gbif.org/), HerpNET (http://herpnet.org), and previously published distribution datasets (see ref. 28 for complete list of sources). Calculating a hurricane activity measure.…”

Trophic specialisation reflected by radular tooth material properties in an “ancient” Lake Tanganyikan gastropod species flock

“…the actual formation of ecological niches as a combined process of internal and external factors, is paramount for understanding how species evolve under geographical and ecological conditions [ 1 – 3 ]. Addressing this topic has seen various approaches based on vertebrates, such as the studies on Darwin finches [ 4 – 9 ], the cichlid fishes in the East African lakes [ 10 – 13 ] and Nicaragua [ 14 – 16 ] or Anolis lizards [ 17 – 19 ]. These species flocks [cf.…”

Environmental and morphological constraints interact to drive the evolution of communication signals in frogs

“…Body size evolution in ectotherms has been linked to a number of environmental factors, including temperature, humidity and evapotranspiration potential (e.g. Amado et al., 2019; Velasco et al., 2020) all of which are known to differ between calling sites. Furthermore, morphological adaptations are also expected to differ between calling sites.…”