Sympatric competitors have driven the evolution of temporal activity patterns in Cnemaspis geckos in Southeast Asia

It is often assumed that animals’ temporal activity patterns are highly conserved throughout evolution. While most geckos are nocturnal, the species in the Cnemaspis genus are mostly diurnal (only a few are nocturnal). This raises a question about the evolution of a diel niche in the Cnemaspis genus...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-01, Vol.10 (1), p.27, Article 27
Main Authors: Nguyen, Hung Ngoc, Hung, Chih-Ming, Yang, Ming-Yuan, Lin, Si-Min
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
38/23
631/158/857
631/181/2468
631/181/757
Activity patterns
Adaptation, Physiological
Animal Distribution
Animals
Asia, Southeastern
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Competition
Cyrtodactylus
Diel activity
Diurnal
Ecosystem
Evolution
Habitat utilization
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lizards - classification
Lizards - physiology
multidisciplinary
Niches
Nocturnal
Phenotype
Phylogeny
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species
Sympatric populations
Sympatry
Sympatry - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:It is often assumed that animals’ temporal activity patterns are highly conserved throughout evolution. While most geckos are nocturnal, the species in the Cnemaspis genus are mostly diurnal (only a few are nocturnal). This raises a question about the evolution of a diel niche in the Cnemaspis genus. Cnemaspis geckos are distributed across Southeast Asia and are often sympatric with Cyrtodactylus , another widespread gecko genus in the same area. Since both genera are mainly rocky habitat specialists, we hypothesize that Cyrtodactylus may influence the temporal activity pattern of Cnemaspis when they are sympatric through competition. By analyzing habitat data, diel activity, and the existence of sympatric Cyrtodactylus species across the phylogeny of the Cnemaspis genus, we found (1) strong phylogenetic signals in the habitat use trait but not in temporal activity, suggesting that the diel niche of this genus is more labile compared with habitat niche, and (2) a significant association with the temporal activity pattern of Cnemaspis and the sympatry between the two genera, with the former tending to be diurnal when they are sympatric. Originated from a diurnal common ancestor, the release from competition with Cyrtodactylus species might open an opportunity for some Cnemaspis species to shift to nocturnal niches.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-56549-x