Female dewlap ornaments are evolutionarily labile and associated with increased diversification rates in Anolis lizards.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of costly signalling traits has largely focused on male ornaments. However, our understanding of ornament evolution is necessarily incomplete without investigating the causes and consequences of variation in female ornamentation. Here, we study the Anolis lizard dewlap, a trait extensively studied as a male secondary sexual characteristic but present in females of several species. We characterized female dewlaps for 339 species to test hypotheses about their evolution. Our results did not support the hypothesis that female dewlaps are selected against throughout the anole phylogeny. Rather, we found that female dewlaps were evolutionary labile. We also did not find support for the adaptive hypothesis that interspecific competition drove the evolution of female dewlaps.

SUBMITTER: Yuan ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9667357 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature