Changing Only Slowly: The Role of Phylogenetic Niche Conservatism in Caviidae (Rodentia) Speciation
- PDF / 491,424 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 36 Downloads / 145 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Changing Only Slowly: The Role of Phylogenetic Niche Conservatism in Caviidae (Rodentia) Speciation Darlan da Silva 1 & Anderson Eduardo Aires 1 & Juan Pablo Zurano 2 & Miguel Angel Olalla-Tárraga 3 & Pablo Ariel Martinez 1 Received: 2 August 2019 / Revised: 18 February 2020 / Accepted: 8 March 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The dynamics of species diversification have attracted significant scientific attention in recent decades. Many lineages tend to maintain their niche characteristics over evolutionary time, a phenomenon known as phylogenetic niche conservatism (NC), which can slow the processes of ecological speciation by diversification selection. NC can, however, promote speciation through neutral evolution, favoring the geographic isolation of populations. Among the mega-diverse Rodentia group, the low species richness of the family Caviidae stands out. Here, we analyzed if the processes of climatic NC are related to the slow diversification observed in the Caviidae family. Locality data for 13 species and nine climatic variables were used to generate ecological niche models. Niche similarity was quantified using the Schoener D index and used to examine correlations between the times of species divergence and niche similarities, thus characterizing their niche occupation profiles (NOP). The NOP were subsequently used to perform phylogenetic niche reconstructions for these species. Niche models accurately described known distributions of species. The greatest niche overlap documented was between Kerodon rupestris and Galea spixii (0.86). The niche and species divergence times showed a negative correlation (beta = -0.013; p = 0.01). These results support the existence of NC, with phylogenetically closer species occupying similar niches, and emphasize the importance of NC in diversification processes at continental scales in a slowly diversifying group. Keywords Caviomorpha . Ecological niche models . Neutral evolution . Niche conservatism . South America
Introduction John Haldane was once asked by theologists what his studies in science could indicate about the nature of God, and he Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-020-09501-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Darlan da Silva [email protected] 1
PIBi-Lab – Laboratório de Pesquisas Integrativas em Biodiversidade, Department of Biology, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Brazil
2
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil
3
BioMa - Biodiversity and Macroecology Laboratory, Department of Biology and Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
responded that the Creator showed “An inordinate fondness for beetles” (Hutchinson 1959), reflecting the wide disparity of species richness found across the tree of life. The balan
Data Loading...
