Ecological radiation with limited morphological diversification in salamanders

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Volumn 25, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 634-646

  Blankers, T ^a   Adams, D C ^b   Wiens, J J ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

^b IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Ecological radiation; Ecomorphology; Microhabitat; Morphology; Phylogenetic comparative method; Plethodontidae

Indexed keywords

ADAPTIVE RADIATION; AMPHIBIAN; CLADISTICS; DIVERGENCE; ECOMORPHOLOGY; EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY; HABITAT USE; MICROHABITAT; PHYLOGENY; SPECIES-AREA RELATIONSHIP;

ANIMAL; ARTICLE; CLASSIFICATION; ECOLOGY; GENETICS; HISTOLOGY; PHYLOGEOGRAPHY; SPECIES DIFFERENTIATION; URODELA;

ANIMALS; ECOLOGY; GENETIC SPECIATION; PHYLOGEOGRAPHY; URODELA;

PLETHODONTIDAE; SALAMANDROIDEA; SQUAMATA;

EID: 84858339140     PISSN: 1010061X     EISSN: 14209101     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02458.x     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. Adams, D.C. 2004. Character displacement via aggressive interference in Appalachian salamanders. Ecology 85: 2664-2670.
2. Adams, D.C. 2010. Parallel evolution of character displacement driven by competitive selection in terrestrial salamanders. BMC Evol. Biol. 10: 1-10.
3. Adams, D.C. & Nistri, A. 2010. Ontogenetic convergence and evolution of foot morphology in European cave salamanders (Family: Plethodontidae). BMC Evol. Biol. 10: 216-226.
4. Adams, D.C. & Rohlf, F.J. 2000. Ecological character displacement in Plethodon: biomechanical differences found from a geometric morphometric study. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97: 4106-4111.
5. Adams, D.C., Berns, C.M., Kozak, K.H. & Wiens, J.J. 2009. Are rates of species diversification correlated with rates of morphological evolution? Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 276: 2729-2738.
6. Akaike, H. 1983. Information measures and model selection. Int. Stat. Inst. 44: 277-291.
7. AmphibiaWeb. 2011. AmphibiaWeb: Information on Amphibian Biology and Conservation.
8. Blackith, R.E. & Reyment, R.A. 1971. Multivariate Morphometrics. Academic Press, London/New York.
9. Burnaby, T.P. 1966. Growth-invariant discriminant functions and generalized distances. Biometrics 22: 96-110.
10. Burnham, K.P. & Anderson, D.R. 2002. Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach. Springer Science, New York.
11. Clabaut, C., Bunje, P.M.E., Salzburger, W. & Meyer, A. 2007. Geometric morphometric analyses provide evidence for the adaptive character of the Tanganyikan cichlid fish radiations. Evolution 61: 560-578.
12. Dodd, C.K. Jr 1990. Postures associated with immobile woodland salamanders, genus Plethodon. Fla. Sci. 53: 43-49.
13. Gavrilets, S. & Losos, J.B. 2009. Adaptive radiation: contrasting theory with data. Science 323: 732-737.
14. Glor, R.E., Kolbe, J.J., Powell, R., Larson, A. & Losos, J.B. 2003. Phylogenetic analysis of ecological and morphological diversification in Hispaniolan trunk-ground anoles (Anolis cybotes group). Evolution 57: 2383-2397.
15. Grafen, A. 1989. The phylogenetic regression. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 326: 119-157.
16. Grant, P.R. 1999. Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
17. Harmon, L.J., Weir, J., Brock, C., Glor, R.E. & Challenger, W. 2008. GEIGER: investigating evolutionary radiations. Bioinformatics 24: 961-964.
18. Irschick, D.J. 2002. Evolutionary approaches for studying functional morphology: examples from studies of performance capacity. Integr. Comp. Biol. 42: 278-290.
19. Irschick, D.J. & Jayne, B.C. 1998. Effects of incline on speed, acceleration, body posture and hindlimb kinematics in two species of lizard Callisaurus draconoides and Uma scoparia. J. Exp. Biol. 201: 273-287.
20. Irschick, D.J. & Losos, J.B. 1998. A comparative analysis of the ecological significance of maximal locomotor performance in Caribbean Anolis lizards. Evolution 52: 219-226.
21. Irschick, D.J., Vitt, L.J., Zani, P.A. & Losos, J.B. 1997. A comparison of evolutionary radiations in mainland and Caribbean Anolis lizards. Evolution 78: 2191-2203.
22. IUCN. 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Version 2010.4. [Database]. URL:.
23. Jaekel, M. & Wake, D.B. 2007. Developmental processes underlying the evolution of a derived foot morphology in salamanders. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104: 20437-20442.
24. Jockusch, E.L. 1997. Geographic variation and phenotypic plasticity of number of trunk vertebrae in slender salamanders, Batrachoseps (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Evolution 51: 1966-1982.
25. Jolicoeur, P. 1963. The multivariate generalization of the allometry equation. Biometrics 19: 497-499.
26. Kozak, K.H., Larson, A., Bonett, R.M. & Harmon, L.J. 2005. Phylogenetic analysis of ecomorphological divergence, community structure, and diversification rates in dusky salamanders (Plethodontidae: Desmognathus). Evolution 59: 2000-2016.
27. Kozak, K.H., Mendyk, R.W. & Wiens, J.J. 2009. Can parallel diversification occur in sympatry? Repeated patterns of body-size evolution in co-existing clades of North American salamanders. Evolution 63: 1769-1784.
28. Lombard, E. & Wake, D.B. 1986. Tongue evolution in the lungless salamanders, family Plethodontidae. IV. Phylogeny of plethondontid salamanders and the evolution of feeding dynamics. Syst. Zool. 35: 532-551.
29. Losos, J.B. 1990a. Ecomorphology, performance capability, and scaling of West Indian Anolis lizards: an evolutionary analysis. Ecol. Monogr. 60: 369-388.
30. Losos, J.B. 1990b. The evolution of form and function: morphology and locomotor performance ability in West Indian Anolis lizards. Evolution 44: 1189-1203.
31. Maddison, W.P. & Maddison, D.R. 2010. Mesquite: A Modular System for Evolutionary Analysis. Version 2.74.
32. Martins, E.P. & Hansen, T.F. 1997. Phylogenies and the comparative method: a general approach to incorporating phylogenetic information into the analysis of interspecific data. Am. Nat. 119: 646-667.
33. McCoy, M.W., Bolker, B.M., Osenberg, C.W., Miner, B.G. & Vonesh, J.R. 2006. Size correction: comparing morphological traits among populations and environments. Oecologia 148: 547-554.
34. McCranie, J.R. & Wilson, L.D. 2002. The Amphibians of Honduras. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Salt Lake City, UT.
35. Mitteroecker, P. & Bookstein, F. 2007. The conceptual and statistical relationship between modularity and morphological integration. Syst. Biol. 56: 818-836.
36. Mosimann, J.E. 1970. Size allometry: size and shape variables with characterizations of the lognormal and generalized gamma distributions. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 65: 930-945.
37. Mosimann, J.E. & James, F.C. 1979. New statistical methods for allometry with application to Florida red-winged blackbirds. Evolution 33: 444-459.
38. Orme, D., Freckleton, R., Thomas, G., Petzoldt, T. & Fritz, S. 2009. CAIC: comparative analysis using independent contrasts. URL:.
39. Orme, D., Freckleton, R., Thomas, G., Petzoldt, T., Fritz, S. & Isaac, N. 2011. caper: comparative analyses of phylogenetics and evolution in R. URL:.
40. Pagel, M. 1999. The maximum likelihood approach to reconstructing ancestral character states of discrete characters on phylogenies. Syst. Biol. 48: 612-622.
41. Paradis, E., Claud, J. & Strimmer, K. 2004. APE: analyses of phylogenetics and evolution in R language. Bioinformatics 20: 289-290.
42. Petranka, J.W. 1998. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
43. Pinheiro, J., Bates, D., DebRoy, S. & Sarkar, D. 2011. nlme: Linear and nonlinear mixed effects models. URL:.
44. Rice, W.R. 1989. Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43: 223-225.
45. Schluter, D. 2000. The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
46. Schluter, D., Price, T., Mooers, A.A. & Ludwig, D. 1997. Likelihood of ancestor states in adaptive radiation. Evolution 51: 1699-1711.
47. Schulte, J.A., Losos, J.B., Cruz, F.B. & Nuñez, H. 2004. The relationship between morphology, escape behaviour and microhabitat occupation in the lizard clade Liolaemus (Iguanidae: Tropidurinae*: Liolaemini). J. Evol. Biol. 17: 408-420.
48. Stacklies, W., Redestig, H., Scholz, M., Walther, D. & Selbig, J. 2007. pcaMethods - a biodoconductor package providing PCA methods for incomplete data. Bioinformatics 23: 1164-1167.
49. Vanhooydonck, B. & Van Damme, R. 1999. Evolutionary relationships between body shape and habitat use in lacertid lizards. Evol. Ecol. Res. 1: 785-805.
50. Vitt, L.J. & Caldwel, J.P. 2009. Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles. Academic Press, San Diego.
51. Vitt, L.J., Caldwell, J.P., Zani, P.A. & Titus, T.A. 1997. The role of habitat shift in evolution of lizard morphology: evidence from tropical Tropidurus. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94: 3828-3832.
52. Wainwright, P.C. & Reilly, S.M. 1994. Ecological Morphology: Integrative Organismal Biology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
53. Wake, D.B. 1966. Comparative osteology and evolution of the lungless salamanders, family Plethodontidae. Mem. South. Calif. Acad. Sci. 4: 1-111.
54. Wake, D.B. 1987. Adaptive radiation of salamanders in Middle American cloud forests. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 74: 242-264.
55. Wake, D.B. 2009. What salamanders have taught us about evolution. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 40: 333-352.
56. Wiens, J.J. & Hoverman, J.T. 2008. Digit reduction, body size, and paedomorphosis in salamanders. Evol. Dev. 10: 449-463.
57. Wiens, J.J., Brandley, M.C. & Reeder, T.W. 2006. Why does a trait evolve multiple times within a clade? Repeated evolution of snakelike body form in squamate reptiles. Evolution 60: 123-141.
58. Wiens, J.J., Parra-Olea, G., Garcia-Paris, M. & Wake, D.B. 2007. Phylogenetic history underlies elevational biodiversity patterns in tropical salamanders. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 274: 919-928.
59. Zheng, Y., Peng, R., Kuro-o, M. & Zeng, X. 2011. Exploring patterns and extent of bias in estimating divergence time from mitochondrial DNA sequence data in a particular lineage: a case study of salamanders (Order: Caudata). Mol. Biol. Evol. 28: 2521-2535.