Data from: Coincident transitions across elevation and origins of functional innovations drove the phenotypic and ecological diversity of lungless salamanders

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Main Author: Burress, Edward
Format: Recurso digital
Published: Zenodo 2025
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_version_ 1866901689323225088
author Burress, Edward
author_facet Burress, Edward
contents <p>Ecological opportunity (EO) is an important catalyst for evolution. Whereas theory often centers around a lineage encountering a source of EO in isolation, in practice, they experience numerous sources of opportunity, either concurrently or sequentially. Such multiplicity can obscure the macroevolutionary signature of EO. Here, we test the effects of elevation (a proxy of the "mountain effect") and an array of functional innovations on the evolutionary history of plethodontid salamanders, a diverse and charismatic radiation of lungless amphibians. Functional innovations unlock access to novel microhabitats, ultimately enabling sub-lineages to occupy a diverse range of ecological niches, particularly in lowland areas where those niches are more abundant. Consistent with expanded ecological opportunity, such transitions to lower elevation result in rapid phenotypic evolution. At high elevation, by contrast, rates of phenotypic evolution and phenotypic disparity decline, reflecting a loss of phenotypically extreme ecological specialists. Transitions in elevation and the origin of innovations appear largely coincident among lungless salamanders, suggesting myriad sources of EO. The magnitude of the "mountain effect" on evolutionary rates (~10-fold) is on par with or greatly exceeds that of islands, lakes, and coral reefs on other iconic vertebrate radiations. Therefore, we find that elevation acts as a major ecological moderator and, in concert with functional innovations, shapes the ecological and phenotypic diversity of lungless salamanders.</p>
format Recurso digital
id zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_17905777
institution Zenodo
language
publishDate 2025
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Data from: Coincident transitions across elevation and origins of functional innovations drove the phenotypic and ecological diversity of lungless salamanders
Burress, Edward
Macroevolution
Functional morphology
Phenotypes
<p>Ecological opportunity (EO) is an important catalyst for evolution. Whereas theory often centers around a lineage encountering a source of EO in isolation, in practice, they experience numerous sources of opportunity, either concurrently or sequentially. Such multiplicity can obscure the macroevolutionary signature of EO. Here, we test the effects of elevation (a proxy of the "mountain effect") and an array of functional innovations on the evolutionary history of plethodontid salamanders, a diverse and charismatic radiation of lungless amphibians. Functional innovations unlock access to novel microhabitats, ultimately enabling sub-lineages to occupy a diverse range of ecological niches, particularly in lowland areas where those niches are more abundant. Consistent with expanded ecological opportunity, such transitions to lower elevation result in rapid phenotypic evolution. At high elevation, by contrast, rates of phenotypic evolution and phenotypic disparity decline, reflecting a loss of phenotypically extreme ecological specialists. Transitions in elevation and the origin of innovations appear largely coincident among lungless salamanders, suggesting myriad sources of EO. The magnitude of the "mountain effect" on evolutionary rates (~10-fold) is on par with or greatly exceeds that of islands, lakes, and coral reefs on other iconic vertebrate radiations. Therefore, we find that elevation acts as a major ecological moderator and, in concert with functional innovations, shapes the ecological and phenotypic diversity of lungless salamanders.</p>
title Data from: Coincident transitions across elevation and origins of functional innovations drove the phenotypic and ecological diversity of lungless salamanders
topic Macroevolution
Functional morphology
Phenotypes
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17905777