TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolving from static to dynamic signals
T2 - Evolutionary compensation between two communicative signals
AU - Martins, Emília P.
AU - Ossip-Klein, Alison G.
AU - Zúñiga-Vega, J. Jaime
AU - Vital García, Cuauhcihuatl
AU - Campos, Stephanie M.
AU - Hews, Diana K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
PY - 2015/4/1
Y1 - 2015/4/1
N2 - Signals that convey related information may impose selection on each other, creating evolutionary links between different components of the communicative repertoire. Here, we ask about the consequences of the evolutionary loss of one signal (a colour patch) on another (a motion display) in Sceloporus lizards. We present data on male lizards of four species: two pairs of sister taxa representing two independent evolutionary losses of the static colour patch (. Sceloporus cozumelae and Sceloporus parvus; Sceloporus siniferus and Sceloporus merriami). Males of the two species that have undergone an evolutionary loss of blue-belly patches (. S.cozumelae, S.siniferus) were less active than their blue-bellied sister taxa (. S.parvus, S.merriami), consistent with the suggestion that the belly patches were lost to reduce conspicuousness of species with high predation pressure. In contrast, the headbob display appears to have become more, rather than less, conspicuous over evolutionary time. The colour patch is exhibited primarily during aggressive encounters, whereas headbob displays are multifunction signals used in several different contexts, including aggressive encounters. Males of species that have lost the colour patch produced more motion displays, and the structure of those motion displays were more similar to those produced during combat. In both evolutionary episodes, a static colour signal appears to have been replaced by dynamic motion displays that can be turned off in the presence of predators and other unwanted receivers. The predominant pattern is one of evolutionary compensation and interactions between multiple signals that convey related information.
AB - Signals that convey related information may impose selection on each other, creating evolutionary links between different components of the communicative repertoire. Here, we ask about the consequences of the evolutionary loss of one signal (a colour patch) on another (a motion display) in Sceloporus lizards. We present data on male lizards of four species: two pairs of sister taxa representing two independent evolutionary losses of the static colour patch (. Sceloporus cozumelae and Sceloporus parvus; Sceloporus siniferus and Sceloporus merriami). Males of the two species that have undergone an evolutionary loss of blue-belly patches (. S.cozumelae, S.siniferus) were less active than their blue-bellied sister taxa (. S.parvus, S.merriami), consistent with the suggestion that the belly patches were lost to reduce conspicuousness of species with high predation pressure. In contrast, the headbob display appears to have become more, rather than less, conspicuous over evolutionary time. The colour patch is exhibited primarily during aggressive encounters, whereas headbob displays are multifunction signals used in several different contexts, including aggressive encounters. Males of species that have lost the colour patch produced more motion displays, and the structure of those motion displays were more similar to those produced during combat. In both evolutionary episodes, a static colour signal appears to have been replaced by dynamic motion displays that can be turned off in the presence of predators and other unwanted receivers. The predominant pattern is one of evolutionary compensation and interactions between multiple signals that convey related information.
KW - Communicative display
KW - Conspicuous visual signal
KW - Dynamic signal
KW - Evolutionary compensation
KW - Multimodal signal
KW - Sceloporus
KW - Static signal
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923288649&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84923288649&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.01.028
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.01.028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84923288649
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 102
SP - 223
EP - 229
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -