When adaptive radiations collide: Different evolutionary trajectories between and within island and mainland lizard clades

Oceanic islands are known as test tubes of evolution. Isolated and colonized by relatively few species, islands are home to many of nature’s most renowned radiations from the finches of the Galápagos to the silverswords of the Hawaiian Islands. Despite the evolutionary exuberance of insular life, is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2021-10, Vol.118 (42), p.1-11
Main Authors: Patton, Austin H., Harmon, Luke J., del Rosario Castañeda, María, Frank, Hannah K., Donihue, Colin M., Herrelg, Anthony, Losos, Jonathan B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Physiological
Animal biology
Animals
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Ecosystem
Evolution
INAUGURAL ARTICLE
Islands
Life Sciences
Lizards
Lizards - classification
Lizards - physiology
Morphology
Oceanic islands
Phylogeny
Populations and Evolution
Radiation
Tubes
Vertebrate Zoology
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Summary:Oceanic islands are known as test tubes of evolution. Isolated and colonized by relatively few species, islands are home to many of nature’s most renowned radiations from the finches of the Galápagos to the silverswords of the Hawaiian Islands. Despite the evolutionary exuberance of insular life, island occupation has long been thought to be irreversible. In particular, the presumed much tougher competitive and predatory milieu in continental settings prevents colonization, much less evolutionary diversification, from islands back to mainlands. To test these predictions, we examined the ecological and morphological diversity of neotropical Anolis lizards, which originated in South America, colonized and radiated on various islands in the Caribbean, and then returned and diversified on the mainland. We focus in particular on what happens when mainland and island evolutionary radiations collide. We show that extensive continental radiations can result from island ancestors and that the incumbent and invading mainland clades achieve their ecological and morphological disparity in very different ways. Moreover, we show that when a mainland radiation derived from island ancestors comes into contact with an incumbent mainland radiation the ensuing interactions favor the island-derived clade.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2024451118