Cargando…

Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar

Lemurs, the diverse, endemic primates of Madagascar, are thought to represent a classic example of adaptive radiation. Based on the most complete phylogeny of living and extinct lemurs yet assembled, I tested predictions of adaptive radiation theory by estimating rates of speciation, extinction and...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Herrera, James P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society Publishing 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5319363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28280597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161014
_version_ 1782509374259855360
author Herrera, James P.
author_facet Herrera, James P.
author_sort Herrera, James P.
collection PubMed
description Lemurs, the diverse, endemic primates of Madagascar, are thought to represent a classic example of adaptive radiation. Based on the most complete phylogeny of living and extinct lemurs yet assembled, I tested predictions of adaptive radiation theory by estimating rates of speciation, extinction and adaptive phenotypic evolution. As predicted, lemur speciation rate exceeded that of their sister clade by nearly twofold, indicating the diversification dynamics of lemurs and mainland relatives may have been decoupled. Lemur diversification rates did not decline over time, however, as predicted by adaptive radiation theory. Optimal body masses diverged among dietary and activity pattern niches as lineages diversified into unique multidimensional ecospace. Based on these results, lemurs only partially fulfil the predictions of adaptive radiation theory, with phenotypic evolution corresponding to an ‘early burst’ of adaptive differentiation. The results must be interpreted with caution, however, because over the long evolutionary history of lemurs (approx. 50 million years), the ‘early burst’ signal of adaptive radiation may have been eroded by extinction.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5319363
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher The Royal Society Publishing
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53193632017-03-09 Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar Herrera, James P. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Lemurs, the diverse, endemic primates of Madagascar, are thought to represent a classic example of adaptive radiation. Based on the most complete phylogeny of living and extinct lemurs yet assembled, I tested predictions of adaptive radiation theory by estimating rates of speciation, extinction and adaptive phenotypic evolution. As predicted, lemur speciation rate exceeded that of their sister clade by nearly twofold, indicating the diversification dynamics of lemurs and mainland relatives may have been decoupled. Lemur diversification rates did not decline over time, however, as predicted by adaptive radiation theory. Optimal body masses diverged among dietary and activity pattern niches as lineages diversified into unique multidimensional ecospace. Based on these results, lemurs only partially fulfil the predictions of adaptive radiation theory, with phenotypic evolution corresponding to an ‘early burst’ of adaptive differentiation. The results must be interpreted with caution, however, because over the long evolutionary history of lemurs (approx. 50 million years), the ‘early burst’ signal of adaptive radiation may have been eroded by extinction. The Royal Society Publishing 2017-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5319363/ /pubmed/28280597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161014 Text en © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Herrera, James P.
Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title_full Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title_fullStr Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title_full_unstemmed Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title_short Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar
title_sort testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of madagascar
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5319363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28280597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161014
work_keys_str_mv AT herrerajamesp testingtheadaptiveradiationhypothesisforthelemursofmadagascar