Life on the rocks: habitat use drives morphological and performance evolution in lizards

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Goodman, Brett A.;Miles, Donald B.;Schwarzkopf, Lin
Abstract

As a group, lizards occupy a vast array of habitats worldwide, yet there remain relatively few cases where habitat use (ecology), morphology, and thus, performance, are clearly related. The best known examples include: increased limb length in response to increased arboreal perch diameter in anoles and increased limb length in response to increased habitat openness for some skinks. Rocky habitats impose strong natural selection on specific morphological characteristics, which differs from that imposed on terrestrial species, because moving about on inclined substrates of irregular sizes and shapes constrains locomotor performance in predictable ways. We quantified habitat use, morphology, and performance of 19 species of lizards (family Scincidae, subfamily Lygosominae) from 23 populations in tropical Australia. These species use habitats with considerable variation in rock availability. Comparative phylogenetic analyses revealed that occupation of rock-dominated habitats correlated with the evolution of increased limb length, compared to species from forest habitats that predominantly occupied leaf litter. Moreover, increased limb length directly affected performance, with species from rocky habitats having greater sprinting, climbing, and clinging ability than their relatives from less rocky habitats. Thus, we found that the degree of rock use is correlated with both morphological and performance evolution in this group of tropical lizards.

Journal

Ecology

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N/A

Volume

89

ISBN/ISSN

1939-9170

Edition

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Issue

12

Pages Count

10

Location

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Publisher

Ecological Society of America

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

Washington, USA -DC

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1890/07-2093.1