Different Evolutionary Pathways Lead to Incomplete Convergence of Elongate Body Shapes in Carnivoran Mammals
Different Evolutionary Pathways Lead to Incomplete Convergence of Elongate Body Shapes in Carnivoran Mammals
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不同的进化途径导致食肉哺乳动物细长体形的不完全收敛
DOI：
10.1093/sysbio/syab091
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发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
6.5
通讯作者：
Law, Chris J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Law, Chris J
虽然趋同通常被认为是贯穿生命之树的普遍特征，但潜在的特征是否也表现出类似的趋同形式的进化途径，这让生物学家感到困惑。在食肉哺乳动物中，“细长”、“细长”和“长”经常被用来描述甚至分类鼬类（貂、鼬和黄鼠狼）、猫鼬（猫鼬）、灵猫（果子狸和麝猫）和其他食肉动物。但是，这些食肉动物究竟有多相似，以及是否存在有助于伸长的形态成分的趋同，却从未被评估过。在这里，我发现，与其他陆地食肉动物相比，这些定性描述的细长型食肉动物表现出不完全趋同于细长的身体。相比之下，尽管有证据表明，与非细长型食肉动物相比，细长型食肉动物的这些组成部分更为细长，但体形变化背后的形态成分并未表现出趋同。此外，这些组分向更长的适应峰表现出更短但不同的系统发育半衰期，表明不同的选择压力可以产生多种延长途径。结合化石记录将有助于进一步研究身体伸长是适应进化还是仅仅是一种保留的祖先特征。[中轴骨;身体伸长;趋同进化;大进化;系统发育比较方法；胸腰椎椎骨。
Although convergence is often recognized as a ubiquitous feature across the Tree of Life, whether the underlying traits also exhibit similar evolutionary pathways towards convergent forms puzzles biologists. In carnivoran mammals, “elongate,” “slender,” and “long” are often used to describe and even to categorize mustelids (martens, polecats, and weasels), herpestids (mongooses), viverrids (civets and genets), and other carnivorans together. But just how similar these carnivorans are and whether there is convergence in the morphological component that contribute to elongation has never been assessed. Here, I found that these qualitatively described elongate carnivorans exhibited incomplete convergence towards elongate bodies compared to other terrestrial carnivorans. In contrast, the morphological components underlying body shape variation do not exhibit convergence despite evidence that these components are more elongate in elongate carnivorans compared to nonelongate carnivorans. Furthermore, these components also exhibited shorter but different phylogenetic half-lives towards more elongate adaptive peaks, indicating that different selective pressures can create multiple pathways to elongation. Incorporating the fossil record will facilitate further investigation of whether body elongation evolved adaptively or if it is simply a retained ancestral trait.[Axial skeleton; body elongation; convergent evolution; macroevolution; phylogenetic comparative methods; thoracolumbar vertebrae.]