Sexual Dichromatism Drives Diversification within a Major Radiation of African Amphibians

Daniel M. Portik*, Rayna C. Bell, David C. Blackburn, Aaron M. Bauer, Christopher D. Barratt, William R. Branch, Marius Burger, Alan Channing, Timothy J. Colston, Werner Conradie, J. Maximilian Dehling, Robert C. Drewes, Raffael Ernst, Eli Greenbaum, Vaclav Gvozdik, James Harvey, Annika Hillers, Mareike Hirschfeld, Gregory F.M. Jongsma, Jos KielgastMarcel T. Kouete, Lucinda P. Lawson, Adam D. Leaché, Simon P. Loader, Stefan Lötters, Arie Van Der Meijden, Michele Menegon, Susanne Müller, Zoltán T. Nagy, Caleb Ofori-Boateng, Annemarie Ohler, Theodore J. Papenfuss, Daniela Rößler, Ulrich Sinsch, Mark Oliver Rödel, Michael Veith, Jens Vindum, Ange Ghislain Zassi-Boulou, Jimmy A. McGuire

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde
13 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Theory predicts that sexually dimorphic traits under strong sexual selection, particularly those involved with intersexual signaling, can accelerate speciation and produce bursts of diversification. Sexual dichromatism (sexual dimorphism in color) is widely used as a proxy for sexual selection and is associated with rapid diversification in several animal groups, yet studies using phylogenetic comparative methods to explicitly test for an association between sexual dichromatism and diversification have produced conflicting results. Sexual dichromatism is rare in frogs, but it is both striking and prevalent in African reed frogs, a major component of the diverse frog radiation termed Afrobatrachia. In contrast to most other vertebrates, reed frogs display female-biased dichromatism in which females undergo color transformation, often resulting in more ornate coloration in females than in males. We produce a robust phylogeny of Afrobatrachia to investigate the evolutionary origins of sexual dichromatism in this radiation and examine whether the presence of dichromatism is associated with increased rates of net diversification. We find that sexual dichromatism evolved once within hyperoliids and was followed by numerous independent reversals to monochromatism. We detect significant diversification rate heterogeneity in Afrobatrachia and find that sexually dichromatic lineages have double the average net diversification rate of monochromatic lineages. By conducting trait simulations on our empirical phylogeny, we demonstrate that our inference of trait-dependent diversification is robust. Although sexual dichromatism in hyperoliid frogs is linked to their rapid diversification and supports macroevolutionary predictions of speciation by sexual selection, the function of dichromatism in reed frogs remains unclear. We propose that reed frogs are a compelling system for studying the roles of natural and sexual selection on the evolution of sexual dichromatism across micro-and macroevolutionary timescales.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftSystematic Biology
Vol/bind68
Udgave nummer6
Sider (fra-til)859-875
Antal sider17
ISSN1063-5157
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 1 nov. 2019

Fingeraftryk

Dyk ned i forskningsemnerne om 'Sexual Dichromatism Drives Diversification within a Major Radiation of African Amphibians'. Sammen danner de et unikt fingeraftryk.

Citationsformater