The Effect of Thermally Robust Ballistic Mechanisms on Climatic Niche in Salamanders.

ABSTRACT: Many organismal functions are temperature-dependent due to the contractile properties of muscle. Spring-based mechanisms offer a thermally robust alternative to temperature-sensitive muscular movements and may correspondingly expand a species' climatic niche by partially decoupling the relationship between temperature and performance. Using the ballistic tongues of salamanders as a case study, we explore whether the thermal robustness of elastic feeding mechanisms increases climatic niche breadth, expands geographic range size, and alters the dynamics of niche evolution. Combining phylogenetic comparative methods with global climate data, we find that the feeding mechanism imparts no discernable signal on either climatic niche properties or the evolutionary dynamics of most climatic niche

SUBMITTER: Friedman ST 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9375770 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature