The evolution of the traplining pollinator role in hummingbirds: specialization is not an evolutionary dead end.

ABSTRACT: Trapliners are pollinators that visit widely dispersed flowers along circuitous foraging routes. The evolution of traplining in hummingbirds is thought to entail morphological specialization through the reciprocal coevolution of longer bills with the long-tubed flowers of widely dispersed plant species. Specialization, such as that exhibited by traplining hummingbirds, is often viewed as both irreversible and an evolutionary dead end. We tested these predictions in a macroevolutionary framework. Specifically, we assessed the relationship between beak morphology and foraging and tested whether transitions to traplining are irreversible and lead to lower rates of diversification as predicted by the hypothesis that specialization is an evolutionary dead end. We find that there have been multi

SUBMITTER: Rombaut LMK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8767203 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature