Testing for evolutionary trade-offs in a phylogenetic context: ecological diversification and evolution of locomotor performance in emydid turtles |
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Authors: | Stephens P R Wiens J J |
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Institution: | National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA. stephens@nceas.ucsb.edu |
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Abstract: | The evolution of ecological trade-offs is an important component of ecological specialization and adaptive radiation. However, the pattern that would show that evolutionary trade-offs have occurred between traits among species has not been clearly defined. In this paper, we propose a phylogeny-based definition of an evolutionary trade-off, and apply it to an analysis of the evolution of trade-offs in locomotor performance in emydid turtles. We quantified aquatic and terrestrial speed and endurance for up to 16 species, including aquatic, semi-terrestrial and terrestrial emydids. Emydid phylogeny was reconstructed from morphological characters and nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Surprisingly, we find that there have been no trade-offs in aquatic and terrestrial speed among species. Instead, specialization to aquatic and terrestrial habitats seems to have involved trade-offs in speed and endurance. Given that trade-offs between speed and endurance may be widespread, they may underlie specialization to different habitats in many other groups. |
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Keywords: | ancestral character reconstruction comparative methods ecological specialization locomotor performance phylogeny trade‐offs turtles |
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