INVESTIGADORES
MORANDO Mariana
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Evolution of niche and ecomorphological traits in a phylogenetic context in lizards of the Liolaemus bibroni complex (Squamata: Liolaemini)
Autor/es:
EDWARDS, DANIELLE; AVILA, L.J.; MARTÍNEZ, L.E.; SITES, J. W. JR.; MORANDO, M.
Lugar:
New Orleans
Reunión:
Congreso; Joint Meeting of Ichtyologists and Herpetologists; 2016
Institución organizadora:
Southeastern Lousiana University
Resumen:
The South American lizard genus Liolaemus is one of the most ecologically diverseterrestrial vertebrate radiations on the planet. Given this ecological breadth, hypotheses abound regarding the evolutionary mechanisms by which species diversity in Liolaemus arises, including body size diversification driven by ecophysiological mechanisms and the evolution of viviparity. Unlike most putatively adaptive radiations – studies of sparsely sampled higher level phylogenies have failed to find an evolutionary relationship between ecomorphological and ecological niche evolution. By using a completely sampled phylogeny of the L. bibronii complex, a group representing the ecological diversity of all Liolaemus and including 23 described and candidate species, we used comparative phylogenetic analyses to look at 1) how niche and ecomorphological traits have evolved through time (i.e., using disparity-through-time analyses), and 2) whether or not ecomorphological trait evolution is correlated with niche evolution (phylogenetic correlation). The morphological disparity analyses showed clear evidence of increasing diversification (greater than null disparity) towards the present in ecomorphology and vegetative niche, with correlated evolution of these traits including multivariate axes describing variation in body shape and size. Unlike previous studies we find no relationships between body size and ALM – a composite variable explaining the change in temperature associated with latitude and elevation. Our results are both congruent with (i.e., diversification in body size) and contrary to (i.e., correlated evolution of body size and shape with vegetation) to studies at higher phylogenetic scales and with less complete sampling.