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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Recurso digital |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Zenodo
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15497080 |
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Table of Contents:
- <p>Understanding the processes that drive divergence in animal signals is central to behavioral and evolutionary ecology. While adaptive explanations have traditionally dominated, especially for traits involved in sexual signaling, the role of non-adaptive processes remains underexplored—particularly for vertebrate chemical signals. Here, we investigated chemical signal variation across multiple island populations of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus). Using lipid and protein profiling of glandular secretions, microsatellite-based genetic distances, and socio-ecological variables, we tested competing hypotheses for signal divergence. Genetic and geographic distances were strong predictors of variation in chemical signal profiles, whereas environmental conditions (i.e., climate, habitat, and food availability) and sexual size dimorphism offered little explanatory power. These findings suggest that non-adaptive processes, such as genetic drift driven by historical isolation and limited gene flow, have likely played a prominent role in shaping chemical signal diversity in this system. Our results underscore the importance of considering both non-adaptive and adaptive processes in signal evolution, particularly in geographically isolated systems with limited dispersal, such as island archipelagos.</p> <p>Here you can find the data and R code to reproduce the analysis of the proposed study. Just download the data_and_code.zip file and read the "readme.pdf" file</p>