A highly conserved ontogenetic limb allometry and its evolutionary significance in the adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards.

ABSTRACT: Diversifications often proceed along highly conserved, evolutionary trajectories. These patterns of covariation arise in ontogeny, which raises the possibility that adaptive morphologies are biased towards trait covariations that resemble growth trajectories. Here, we test this prediction in the diverse clade of Anolis lizards by investigating the covariation of embryonic growth of 13 fore- and hindlimb bones in 15 species, and compare these to the evolutionary covariation of these limb bones across 267 Anolis species. Our results demonstrate that species differences in relative limb length are established already at hatching, and are resulting from both differential growth and differential sizes of cartilaginous anlagen. Multivariate analysis revealed that Antillean Anoli

SUBMITTER: Feiner N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8220270 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature