Journal article

Parallel adaptations to nectarivory in parrots, key innovations and the diversification of the Loriinae

  • Schweizer, Manuel Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern, Switzerland
  • Güntert, Marcel Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern, Switzerland
  • Seehausen, Ole Aquatic Ecology and Macroevolution, Institute of Ecology & Evolution, University of Bern, Switzerland - Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
  • Leuenberger, Christoph Department of Quantitative Economics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Hertwig, Stefan T. Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern, Switzerland
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    01.07.2014
Published in:
  • Ecology and Evolution. - 2014, vol. 4, no. 14, p. 2867–2883
English Specialization to nectarivory is associated with radiations within different bird groups, including parrots. One of them, the Australasian lories, were shown to be unexpectedly species rich. Their shift to nectarivory may have created an ecological opportunity promoting species proliferation. Several morphological specializations of the feeding tract to nectarivory have been described for parrots. However, they have never been assessed in a quantitative framework considering phylogenetic nonindependence. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach with broad taxon sampling and 15 continuous characters of the digestive tract, we demonstrate that nectarivorous parrots differ in several traits from the remaining parrots. These trait-changes indicate phenotype–environment correlations and parallel evolution, and may reflect adaptations to feed effectively on nectar. Moreover, the diet shift was associated with significant trait shifts at the base of the radiation of the lories, as shown by an alternative statistical approach. Their diet shift might be considered as an evolutionary key innovation which promoted significant non-adaptive lineage diversification through allopatric partitioning of the same new niche. The lack of increased rates of cladogenesis in other nectarivorous parrots indicates that evolutionary innovations need not be associated one-to-one with diversification events.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Biologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Zoology
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/303806
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