When a general morphology allows many habitat uses

TULLI M J; CRUZ FB; KOHLSDORF T; ABDALA V

Integrative zoology

Wiley

Año: 2016 vol. 41 p. 473 - 489

1749-4877

The morphological basis for functional morphology has been revitalized and more detailed data3 on the internal anatomy are being incorporated for a better understanding of the actual features4 involved in locomotion. Here we focus on two lizard families, Tropiduridae and Liolaemidae,5 and use information of muscle-tendinous and external morphology traits of hind legs. We6 investigate whether the value of the traits analyzed tend to exhibit a reduced phenotypic variation7 produced by stabilizing selection; and whether species showing specialization in their habitat use8 will also exhibit special morphological features related to it. As a result, we identified that9 evolution of hind limb traits is mainly explained by the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model, suggesting10 stabilizing selection. Liolaemids and tropidurids show clear ecomorphological trends in the11 variables considered, with sand lizards presenting the most specialized morphological traits.12 Some ecomorphological trends differ between the two lineages, and traits of internal morphology13 tend to be more flexible than those of external morphology, restricting the ability to identify14 ecomorphs shared between these two lineages. Conservative traits of external morphology likely15 explain such restriction, as ecomorphs have been historically defined in other lizard clades based16 on variation of external morphology.