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Morphology and niche evolution influence hummingbird speciation rates.

ABSTRACT: How traits affect speciation is a long-standing question in evolution. We investigate whether speciation rates are affected by the traits themselves or by the rates of their evolution, in hummingbirds, a clade with great variation in speciation rates, morphology and ecological niches. Further, we test two opposing hypotheses, postulating that speciation rates are promoted by trait conservatism or, alternatively, by trait divergence. To address these questions, we analyse morphological (body mass and bill length) and niche traits (temperature and precipitation position and breadth, and mid-elevation), using a variety of methods to estimate speciation rates and correlate them with traits and their evolutionary rates. When it comes to the traits, we find faster speciation in smaller hummingbirds with shorter bills, living at higher elevations and experiencing greater temperature ranges. As for the trait evolutionary rates, we find that speciation increases with rates of divergence in the niche traits, but not in the morphological traits. Together, these results reveal the interplay of mechanisms through which different traits and their evolutionary rates (conservatism or divergence) influence the origination of hummingbird diversity.

SUBMITTER: Barreto E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10113027 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Morphology and niche evolution influence hummingbird speciation rates.

Barreto Elisa E Lim Marisa C W MCW Rojas Danny D Dávalos Liliana M LM Wüest Rafael O RO Machac Antonin A Graham Catherine H CH

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20230419 1997

How traits affect speciation is a long-standing question in evolution. We investigate whether speciation rates are affected by the traits themselves or by the rates of their evolution, in hummingbirds, a clade with great variation in speciation rates, morphology and ecological niches. Further, we test two opposing hypotheses, postulating that speciation rates are promoted by trait conservatism or, alternatively, by trait divergence. To address these questions, we analyse morphological (body mass ...[more]

PMID: 37072043

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Project description:BackgroundMesoamerica is one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots in the world, yet we are far from understanding the geologic history and the processes driving population divergence and speciation for most endemic taxa. In species with highly differentiated populations selective and/or neutral factors can induce rapid changes to traits involved in mate choice, promoting reproductive isolation between allopatric populations that can eventually lead to speciation. We present the results of genetic differentiation, and explore drift and selection effects in promoting acoustic and morphological divergence among populations of Campylopterus curvipennis, a lekking hummingbird with an extraordinary vocal variability across Mesoamerica.ResultsAnalyses of two mitochondrial genes and ten microsatellite loci genotyped for 160 individuals revealed the presence of three lineages with no contemporary gene flow: C. c. curvipennis, C. c. excellens, and C. c. pampa disjunctly distributed in the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Tuxtlas region and the Yucatan Peninsula, respectively. Sequence mtDNA and microsatellite data were congruent with two diversification events: an old vicariance event at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (c. 1.4 Ma), and a more recent Pleistocene split, isolating populations in the Tuxtlas region. Hummingbirds of the excellens group were larger, and those of the pampa group had shorter bills, and lineages that have been isolated the longest shared fewer syllables and differed in spectral and temporal traits of a shared syllable. Coalescent simulations showed that fixation of song types has occurred faster than expected under neutrality but the null hypothesis that morphological divergence resulted from drift was not rejected.ConclusionsOur phylogeographic analyses uncovered the presence of three Mesoamerican wedge-tailed sabrewing lineages, which diverged at different time scales. These results highlight the importance of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and more recent Pleistocene climatic events in driving isolation and population divergence. Coalescent analyses of the evolution of phenotypic traits suggest that selection is driving song evolution in wedge-tailed sabrewings but drift could not be rejected as a possibility for morphological divergence.

Project description:BackgroundOur aim is to understand the evolution of species-rich plant groups that shifted from tropical into cold/temperate biomes. It is well known that climate affects evolutionary processes, such as how fast species diversify, species range shifts, and species distributions. Many plant lineages may have gone extinct in the Northern Hemisphere due to Late Eocene climate cooling, while some tropical lineages may have adapted to temperate conditions and radiated; the hyper-diverse and geographically widespread genus Hypericum is one of these.ResultsTo investigate the effect of macroecological niche shifts on evolutionary success we combine historical biogeography with analyses of diversification dynamics and climatic niche shifts in a phylogenetic framework. Hypericum evolved cold tolerance c. 30 million years ago, and successfully colonized all ice-free continents, where today ~500 species exist. The other members of Hypericaceae stayed in their tropical habitats and evolved into ~120 species. We identified a 15-20 million year lag between the initial change in temperature preference in Hypericum and subsequent diversification rate shifts in the Miocene.ConclusionsContrary to the dramatic niche shift early in the evolution of Hypericum most extant species occur in temperate climates including high elevations in the tropics. These cold/temperate niches are a distinctive characteristic of Hypericum. We conclude that the initial release from an evolutionary constraint (from tropical to temperate climates) is an important novelty in Hypericum. However, the initial shift in the adaptive landscape into colder climates appears to be a precondition, and may not be directly related to increased diversification rates. Instead, subsequent events of mountain formation and further climate cooling may better explain distribution patterns and species-richness in Hypericum. These findings exemplify important macroevolutionary patterns of plant diversification during large-scale global climate change.

Dataset Information

Morphology and niche evolution influence hummingbird speciation rates.

Publications

Morphology and niche evolution influence hummingbird speciation rates.

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