Exploring mechanisms and origins of reduced dispersal in island Komodo dragons.

ABSTRACT: Loss of dispersal typifies island biotas, but the selective processes driving this phenomenon remain contentious. This is because selection via, both indirect (e.g. relaxed selection or island syndromes) and direct (e.g. natural selection or spatial sorting) processes may be involved, and no study has yet convincingly distinguished between these alternatives. Here, we combined observational and experimental analyses of an island lizard, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis, the world's largest lizard), to provide evidence for the actions of multiple processes that could contribute to island dispersal loss. In the Komodo dragon, concordant results from telemetry, simulations, experimental translocations, mark-recapture, and gene flow studies indicated that despite impressive physic

SUBMITTER: Jessop TS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6253366 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature