PHYLOGENETIC EVIDENCE FOR COMPETITIVELY DRIVEN DIVERGENCE: BODY-SIZE EVOLUTION IN CARIBBEAN TREEFROGS (HYLIDAE:OSTEOPILUS)

Abstract

Understanding the role of competition in explaining phenotypic diversity is a challenging problem, given that the most divergent species may no longer compete today. However, convergent evolution of extreme body sizes across communities may offer

The niche, biogeography and species interactions

“…Within a given locality, microhabitat and body size may be the most important resource-related traits for hylids, given that microhabitat determines where they live and breed and body size effectively determines what they will eat (most seem to be generalist insectivores where body size determines prey size but not prey type (e.g. [71,72]). Thus, the radiation of Hylini would appear to have led to occupation (if not saturation) of the major resource-related niches within the region.…”

“…some microhylids, ranine ranids and terraranans [71]). However, the presence of additional arboreal lineages in sympatry only reinforces the idea that treefrog radiations do not prevent the co-occurrence of other arboreal lineages in a region.…”

Nueva especie de rana bromelícola del género Pristimantis (Amphibia: Craugastoridae), meseta de la Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador

“…Los cebadores utilizados para 16S fueron los mismos de Henicke et al (2007). Para ND1 fueron LX16S1a por Zhang et al (2013), 16S-Frog y tMet-frog por Wiens et al (2005), WL384 y WL379 por Moen & Wiens (2009), y WL379b diseñado para este estudio (secuencia GCACTAGCAATAATTATYTGAACBCC, sentido derecho). Para RAG1 los cebadores fueron R182 y R270 (Hedges et al, 2008).…”

Sponge host characteristics shape the community structure of their shrimp associates

“…Because of the often direct effects of body size on individual fitness, the ecological factors driving the evolution of body size within species' lineages have been well explored (Kirk 1991, Novotny & Basset 1999, Johnson et al 2005, Hultgren & Stachowicz 2009, Moen et al 2009, Poulin 2009), though the evolutionary development of community-wide variation in size has been less well studied (but see (Holling 1992, Moen et al 2009). ABSTRACT: Both body size and habitat architecture have pervasive effects on the form, function, and interactions of organisms, and can play especially important roles in structuring intimate associations between host organisms and their obligate associates.…”