Morphological and Physiological Adaptations for Browsing and Grazing
| Autor: | Marcus Clauss, Daryl Codron, Reinhold R. Hofmann |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | University of Zurich, Gordon, Iain, Prins, Herbert H T |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Ecological niche Herbivore 10253 Department of Small Animals 630 Agriculture Mechanism (biology) Foraging Niche Diversification (marketing strategy) Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Life history theory 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Evolutionary biology 570 Life sciences biology Convergence (relationship) |
| Zdroj: | The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing II ISBN: 9783030258641 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/978-3-030-25865-8_4 |
| Popis: | Woody plants and grasses are two functionally distinct food groups that pose different mechanical, nutritional, and ecological challenges to herbivores. Accordingly, herbivores have evolved an array of morphological, physiological, and behavioural life history traits that reflect each species’ primary dietary niche. The prevalence of convergences across distantly related groups is evidence that many of these traits are adaptive. Most evaluations are, however, necessarily correlational, and so the functional relevance of many traits is still being debated. The last 2 decades has seen the emergence of larger, more representative, and quantitative datasets, which, along with statistical developments in evolutionary biology, means that a revised set of analyses is warranted. In this chapter we present a collection of updated datasets for almost 100 anatomical and physiological characteristics from 188 species. These data are subjected to phylogenetically-constrained analyses of relationships with diet niches (using %grass in the diet as a niche indicator). Results of these analyses highlight not only the extraordinary amount of convergence within this animal group, but also the constraints that morpho-physiology places on diet niches. To separate correlation from functional significance, we advocate an approach that considers the correlations between traits as part of each species’ “bauplan”, and highlight how this approach has already been used to link trends and outliers with mechanism in various datasets. While some questions about functional relevance require experimental manipulations that will almost certainly never be realized, synergies between experimental and correlational analyses are rapidly changing our understanding of how foraging adaptations, from locating and biting, to chewing and digesting food, have shaped the evolutionary diversification of mammal herbivores. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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