TY - JOUR
T1 - Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation in Anolis lizards
AU - Butler, Marguerite A.
AU - Sawyer, Stanley A.
AU - Losos, Jonathan B.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We acknowledge the National Science Foundation for financial support. We thank J. Higa, L.-R. Chu and C. K. Wang for assistance in the field; T. Duong and A. King for advice on analyses; and L. Harmon, J. Kolbe, B. Langerhans, S. Gavrilets and D. Simberloff for critical review of the manuscript.
PY - 2007/5/10
Y1 - 2007/5/10
N2 - Sexual dimorphism is widespread and substantial throughout the animal world. It is surprising, then, that such a pervasive source of biological diversity has not been integrated into studies of adaptive radiation, despite extensive and growing attention to both phenomena. Rather, most studies of adaptive radiation either group individuals without regard to sex or focus solely on one sex. Here we show that sexual differences contribute substantially to the ecomorphological diversity produced by the adaptive radiations of West Indian Anolis lizards: within anole species, males and females occupy mostly non-overlapping parts of morphological space; the overall extent of sexual variation is large relative to interspecific variation; and the degree of variation depends on ecological type. Thus, when sexual dimorphism in ecologically relevant traits is substantial, ignoring its contribution may significantly underestimate the adaptive component of evolutionary radiation. Conversely, if sexual dimorphism and interspecific divergence are alternative means of ecological diversification, then the degree of sexual dimorphism may be negatively related to the extent of adaptive radiation.
AB - Sexual dimorphism is widespread and substantial throughout the animal world. It is surprising, then, that such a pervasive source of biological diversity has not been integrated into studies of adaptive radiation, despite extensive and growing attention to both phenomena. Rather, most studies of adaptive radiation either group individuals without regard to sex or focus solely on one sex. Here we show that sexual differences contribute substantially to the ecomorphological diversity produced by the adaptive radiations of West Indian Anolis lizards: within anole species, males and females occupy mostly non-overlapping parts of morphological space; the overall extent of sexual variation is large relative to interspecific variation; and the degree of variation depends on ecological type. Thus, when sexual dimorphism in ecologically relevant traits is substantial, ignoring its contribution may significantly underestimate the adaptive component of evolutionary radiation. Conversely, if sexual dimorphism and interspecific divergence are alternative means of ecological diversification, then the degree of sexual dimorphism may be negatively related to the extent of adaptive radiation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34248579745&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nature05774
DO - 10.1038/nature05774
M3 - Article
C2 - 17495925
AN - SCOPUS:34248579745
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 447
SP - 202
EP - 205
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7141
ER -