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Published January 5, 2018 | Version v1
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Data from: Phylogenetic patterns of trait and trait plasticity evolution: Insights from amphibian embryos

Creators

  • 1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • 2. University of Georgia
  • 3. University of New Mexico
  • 4. Oregon State University
  • 5. University of San Diego
  • 6. University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 7. Southeastern Louisiana University
  • 8. Arizona State University
  • 9. Oklahoma State University
  • 10. Monell Chemical Senses Center
  • 11. Purdue University
  • 12. University of California, Davis
  • 13. Florida State University
  • 14. University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  • 15. University of Kentucky
  • 16. Tennessee Technological University
  • 17. University of Missouri

Description

Environmental variation favors the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. For many species, we understand the costs and benefits of different phenotypes, but we lack a broad understanding of how plastic traits evolve across large clades. Using identical experiments conducted across North America, we examined prey responses to predator cues. We quantified five life history traits and the magnitude of their plasticity for 23 amphibian species/populations (spanning three families and five genera) when exposed to no cues, crushed-egg cues, and predatory crayfish cues. Embryonic responses varied considerably among species and phylogenetic signal was common among the traits whereas phylogenetic signal was rare for trait plasticities. Among trait-evolution models, the Ornstein Uhlenbeck (OU) model provided the best fit or was essentially tied with Brownian motion. Using the best fitting model, evolutionary rates for plasticities were higher than traits for three life history traits and lower for two. These data suggest that the evolution of life history traits in amphibian embryos is more constrained by a species' position in the phylogeny than life history plasticity. The fact that an OU model of trait evolution was often a good fit to patterns of trait variation may indicate adaptive optima for traits and their plasticities.

Notes

Embryonic plasticity-raw data
Raw data (per replicate) for 23 experiments conducted on anuran embryos from across the United States.

Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DEB 07-16149

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Additional details

Related works

Is cited by
10.1111/evo.13428 (DOI)