Arms race of temporal partitioning between carnivorous and herbivorous mammals.

ABSTRACT: Reciprocal coevolutionary changes in predation and anti-predator behaviours have long been hypothesized, but evolutionary-scale evidence is rare. Here, we reconstructed the evolutionary-scale changes in the diel activity patterns of a predator-prey system (carnivorous and herbivorous mammals) based on a molecular phyloecological approach, providing evidence of long-term antagonistic coevolutionary changes in their diel activities. Our molecular reconstruction of diel activity patterns, which is supported by morphological evidence, consistently showed that carnivorous mammals were subjected to a shift from diurnality to nocturnality, while herbivorous mammals experienced a shift from nocturnality to diurnality during their evolutionary histories. A shift in the diel activity of the herbivor

SUBMITTER: Wu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5789060 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature