Vergleichende Nahrungsökologie von Mausmaki-Arten (Microcebus spp.) in Nordwest-Madagaskar vor dem Hintergrund artspezifischer biogeographischer Muster

与其他长期与世隔绝的岛屿一样，马达加斯加拥有高度多样化的动物群，当地和区域特有疾病的复杂组合。导致这些范围大小差异的进化过程还远未被理解。本研究的目的是采用现代建模技术，以便首次测试两种可能解释特别大范围尺寸进化的一般替代方案（“可变海拔可塑性”与“可变殖民化时间”）。我们将专注于一个非常多样化的模式属，小型，夜间活动，树栖鼠狐猴（Microcebus spp.），因为它们遍布马达加斯加的所有森林栖息地，通常不会被猎杀，对栖息地干扰的反应比其他物种少，并且具有非常短的一代时间（1年），这使我们能够很容易地检测和解开古代和现代人口和空间过程的遗传信号。各种分子数据集将采用不同的最先进的方法进行建模，以确定大分布与小分布的物种多样化的时间，并阐明和确定系统地理历史的日期，包括分布最大的物种的地理起源，灰鼠狐猴，在其整个范围内。来自野外的形态学（表型）和生态学数据将补充分析，并将允许测试表型变异性和遗传分化是由生境特征还是研究地点之间的地理距离更好地解释。

Madagascar, like other islands with long-term isolation, has a highly diversified fauna with a complex mix of local and regional endemics. The evolutionary processes that led to these divergences in range sizes are far from understood. The aim of this study is to employ modern modelling techniques in order to test for the first time two general alternative scenarios (“Variable Elevational Plasticity” vs. “Variable Colonization Times”) that may explain the evolution of particularly large range sizes. We will focus on a very diverse model genus, the small, nocturnal, arboreal mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), since they occur throughout all forest habitats of Madagascar, are usually not hunted, respond less to habitat disturbances than other species, and have a very short generation time (1 yr) that allows us to readily detect and disentangle genetic signals of both ancient and recent demographic and spatial processes. Various molecular datasets will be modelled with different state of the art approaches in order to determine the timing of diversification for species with large vs. small distributions, and to illuminate and date the phylogeographic history, including the geographic origin, of the species with the largest distribution, the grey mouse lemur, across its complete range. Morphological (phenotypic) and ecological data from the field will complement the analyses and will allow to test whether phenotypic variability and genetic differentiation is better explained by habitat characteristics or by geographic distance among study sites.