2009年12月4日 星期五

掠食者的出現與否驅動開曼群島食紋魚(細點食紋魚)形態的分化

superlink: http://www.viviparos.com/Fichas/Imagem/Gambusia%20punctata%201.JPG

文獻來源: Langerhans RB, Makowicz AM. 2009.
Shared and unique features of morphological differentiation
between predator regimes in Gambusia caymanensis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 2231-2242. [全文下載]

Abstract
When multiple groups of organisms experience similar environmental gradients, their patterns of differentiation might exhibit both shared and unique features. Here, we investigated the relative importance of three factors in generating body shape variation in a livebearing fish, Gambusia caymanensis, inhabiting the Cayman Islands: (i) shared patterns of divergent selection between predator regimes (presence ⁄ absence of piscivorous fish) driving replicated morphological differentiation, (ii) historical island effects yielding different morphologies across the three islands and (iii) unique effects of predation on morphological differentiation within each island. Shared effects of predation proved much more important than historical or unique effects. Populations coexisting with piscivorous fish exhibited larger caudal regions and smaller heads than conspecifics found in the absence of predatory fish. These results match a priori predictions, and mirror recent findings in a number of fish species, suggesting predation might often drive predictable morphological trends in disparate fishes. However, interestingly, the sexes achieved this morphological pattern through different means: head depth, caudal peduncle length and depth in males; head length, caudal peduncle depth in females. In G. caymanensis, we quantitatively confirmed that predation intensity represents a primary driver of body shape differentiation.

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