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Genitals evolve faster than other traits in A nolis lizards
Author(s) -
Klaczko J.,
Ingram T.,
Losos J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/jzo.12178
Subject(s) - biology , lizard , interspecific competition , evolutionary biology , sauria , divergence (linguistics) , zoology , phenotype , morphology (biology) , ecology , genetics , gene , linguistics , philosophy
Male genitalia are thought to be particularly rapidly evolving morphological structures, but there have been few quantitative interspecific comparisons between the evolutionary rates of genital and nongenital traits. We characterize the morphology of hemipenes in 25 C aribbean A nolis lizard species, and compare rates of hemipenial evolution to those of traits related to ecology or visual signaling. Using phylogenetically based comparisons of rates of evolutionary divergence, we show that genital traits evolve more rapidly than nongenital traits in anoles.