Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Correlated evolution of conspicuous colouration and body size in the poison frog family Dendrobatidae
Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Kalmar University.
Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Kalmar University.
2003 (English)In: Evolution, ISSN 0014-3820, E-ISSN 1558-5646, Vol. 57, no 12, p. 2904-2910Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Conspicuous coloration is often used in combination with chemical defenses to deter predators from attacking. Experimental studies have shown that the avoidance inducing effect of conspicuous prey coloration increases with increasing size of pattern elements and with increasing body size. Here we use a comparative approach to test the prediction from these findings, namely that conspicuous coloration will evolve in tandem with body size. In our analysis, we use a previously published mitochondrial DNA-based phylogeny and comparative analysis of independent contrasts to examine if evolutionary shifts in color pattern have been associated with evolutionary changes in body size in aposematic poison frogs (Anura: Dendrobatidae). Information on body size (snout to vent length) and coloration were obtained from the literature. Two different measures of conspicuousness were used, one based on rankings by human observers and the other based on computer analysis of digitized photographs. The results from comparative analyses using either measure of coloration indicated that avoidance inducing coloration and body size have evolved in concert in poison frogs. Results from reconstruction of character change further indicate that the correlated evolution of size and coloration has involved changes in both directions within each of the different clades of the phylogenetic tree. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that selection imposed by visually guided predators has promoted the evolution of larger body size in species with conspicuous coloration, or enhanced evolution of conspicuous coloration in larger species.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2003. Vol. 57, no 12, p. 2904-2910
Keywords [en]
Aposematism; body size; coloration; Dendrobatidae; evolution; phylogeny; signaling
National Category
Evolutionary Biology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-71667DOI: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb01531.xOAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-71667DiVA, id: diva2:485431
Available from: 2012-01-29 Created: 2012-01-29 Last updated: 2022-02-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Hagman, Mattias

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Hagman, Mattias
In the same journal
Evolution
Evolutionary Biology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 167 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf