The evolution and diversification of animal reproductive modes have been pivotal questions in behavioral ecology. Amphibians present the highest diversity of reproductive modes among vertebrates, involving various behavioral, physiological and morphological traits. One of such features is the amplexus, the clasp or embrace of males on females during reproduction, which is almost universal to anurans. Hypotheses about the origin amplexus are limited and have not been thoroughly tested, nor had they taken into account evolutionary relationships in most comparative studies. However, these considerations are crucial to understand the evolution of reproductive modes. Here, using an evolutionary framework, we reconstruct the ancestral state of amplexus in 686 anuran species; investigate whether the amplexus type is a conserved trait; and test whether sexual size dimorphism (SSD) could have influenced the amplexus type or male performance while clasping females. Overall, we found evidence of at least 35 evolutionary transitions in amplexus type across anurans. We also found that amplexus exhibits a high phylogenetic signal (it is conserved across Anura evolutionary history) and the amplexus type does not evolve in association with SSD. We discuss the implications of our findings on the diversity of amplexus types across anurans.

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https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/11/26/854117.full.pdf

1. Evolutionary Biology As A Historical Science

Much more than a clasp: Evolutionary pattern of amplexus diversity in anurans

Summary Character displacement can play a major role in species ecology and evolution, however, research testing whether character displacement can influence the evolution of root traits in plant systems remains scarce in the literature. Here we investigated the potential that character displacement may influence the evolution of root traits using two closely related morning glory species, Ipomoea purpurea and I. hederacea. We performed a field experiment where we grew the common morning glory, I. purpurea, in the presence and absence of competition from I. hederacea and examined the potential that the process of character displacement could influence the evolution of root traits. We found maternal line variation in root phenotypes and evidence that belowground competition acts as an agent of selection on these traits. Our test of character displacement, however, showed evidence of character convergence on our measure of root architecture rather than displacement. These results suggest that plants may be constrained by their local environments to express a phenotype that enhances fitness. Therefore, the conditions of the competitive environment experienced by a plant may influence the potential for character convergence or displacement to influence the evolution of root traits.

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1. Evolutionary Biology As A Historical Science

Citations

Much more than a clasp: Evolutionary pattern of amplexus diversity in anurans

Belowground competition favors character convergence but not character displacement in root traits

References

Much more than a clasp: Evolutionary pattern of amplexus diversity in anurans

Belowground competition favors character convergence but not character displacement in root traits

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