Dietary shift of predator in insular environment : evaluation of relative importance of natural selection and gene flow to phenotypic evolution

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Identifying and dating historical biological events is an essential step to disentangle causative mechanisms of adaptive evolution during the course of community assembly. We present historical evidence for the roles of predator colonization order in shaping diet shift and morphological change of the predator snake, Elaphe quadrivirgata in order to determine if predator evolved life history traits and color pattern in association with colonization order of prey. Additionally, relative importance of natural selection, random genetic drift, and gene flow on geographic divergence in head morphological traits were evaluated. Field data suggests relatively strong natural selection was observed during the course of population fluctuation.