Abstract
BackgroundUnderstanding the mechanisms promoting or constraining morphological diversification within clades is a central topic in evolutionary biology. Ecological transitions are of particular interest because of their influence upon the selective forces and factors involved in phenotypic evolution. Here we focused on the humerus and mandibles of talpid moles to test whether the transition to the subterranean lifestyle impacted morphological disparity and phenotypic traits covariation between these two structures.ResultsOur results indicate non-subterranean species occupy a significantly larger portion of the talpid moles morphospace. However, there is no difference between subterranean and non-subterranean moles in terms of the strength and direction of phenotypic integration.ConclusionsOur study shows that the transition to a subterranean lifestyle significantly reduced morphological variability in talpid moles. However, this reduced disparity was not accompanied by changes in the pattern of traits covariation between the humerus and the mandible, suggesting the presence of strong phylogenetic conservatism within this pattern.
Highlights
Understanding the mechanisms promoting or constraining morphological diversification within clades is a central topic in evolutionary biology
Because the measurement error was smaller than 5% in both datasets it could be safely assumed its effect on the results was negligible [39]
Our study demonstrates that the transition to subterranean environments resulted in dramatically reduced shape disparity in both the humerus and the mandible of subterranean species
Summary
Understanding the mechanisms promoting or constraining morphological diversification within clades is a central topic in evolutionary biology. Understanding why some clades achieve a large morphological, behavioral and ecological diversity, while others do not, represents a central aim in evolutionary biology Studies addressing this question usually try to identify the factors allowing high phenotypic diversity, or constraining its realization [1]. The mammalian family Talpidae includes ambulatorial (Uropsilini), semi-aquatic (Desmanini and Codylurini), semi-fossorial (Urotrichini and Neurotrichini) and fully subterranean species (Scalopini and Talpini) The colonization of such a wide array of environments was realized by the combination of different behavioral, physiological and morphological adaptations [17,18,19,20,21] especially evident in the forelimbs of digging species [17, 18, 22, 23]. Such wide array of morphological adaptations makes talpids an ideal group for investigating the phenotypic effects of a major ecological transition, such as the colonization of the subterranean habitat
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