The preeminent role of directional selection in generating extreme morphological change in Glyptodonts (Cingulata; Xenarthra)
| Autor: | Fabio Andrade Machado, Gabriel Marroig, Alex Hubbe |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
General Immunology and Microbiology
biology Fossils Directional selection Lineage (evolution) Skull Xenarthra XENARTHRA General Medicine biology.organism_classification Biological Evolution General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Phenotype Cingulata Genetic drift Palaeobiology Evolutionary biology Trait Animals Selection Genetic Stabilizing selection General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Selection (genetic algorithm) General Environmental Science |
| Zdroj: | Proc Biol Sci Repositório Institucional da USP (Biblioteca Digital da Produção Intelectual) Universidade de São Paulo (USP) instacron:USP |
| Popis: | The prevalence of stasis on paleontological and comparative data has been classically taken as evidence of the strong role of stabilizing selection in shaping morphological evolution. When confronted against biologically informed predictions, empirical rates of evolution tend to fall below what is expected under genetic drift, suggesting that the signal for directional selection is erased at longer time scales. However, empirical tests of these claims are few and tend to focus on univariate traits, ignoring the potential roles of trait covariances in constraining evolution. Here we investigated the multivariate rates of morphological evolution in a fossil lineage that underwent extreme morphological modification, the glyptodonts. Contrary to what was expected, biologically informed models of evolution suggest a preeminent role of directional selection on the divergence of glyptodonts from living armadillos. Furthermore, the reconstruction of selection patterns shows that traits selected to generate a glytodont morphology are markedly different from those necessary to explain the extant armadillos9 morphological diversity. Changes in both direction and magnitude of selection are probably tied to the invasion of a specialist-herbivore adaptive zone by glyptodonts. These results suggest that directional selection might have played a more important role in the evolution of extreme morphologies than previously imagined. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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