Evolution of habitat preference in 243 species of Bent-toed geckos (Genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) with a discussion of karst habitat conservation.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the processes that underpin adaptive evolutionary shifts within major taxonomic groups has long been a research directive among many evolutionary biologists. Such phenomena are best studied in large monophyletic groups that occupy a broad range of habitats where repeated exposure to novel ecological opportunities has happened independently over time in different lineages. The gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus is just such a lineage with approximately 300 species that range from South Asia to Melanesia and occupy a vast array of habitats. Ancestral state reconstructions using a stochastic character mapping analysis of nine different habitat preferences were employed across a phylogeny composed of 76% of the known species of Cyrtodactylus. This was done in order to asc

SUBMITTER: Grismer LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771171 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature