Convergent evolution across the Australian continent: ecotype diversification drives morphological convergence in two distantly related clades of Australian frogs

Animals from different clades but subject to similar environments often evolve similar body shapes and physiological adaptations due to convergent evolution, but this has been rarely tested at the transcontinental level and across entire classes of animal. Australia's biome diversity, isolation and aridification history provide excellent opportunities for comparative analyses on broad-scale macroevolutionary patterns. We collected morphological and environmental data on eighty-four (98%) Australian hylid frog species and categorized them into ecotypes. Using a phylogenetic framework, we tested the hypothesis that frogs from the same ecotype display similar body shape patterns: (i) across all the Australian hylids, and (ii) through comparison with a similar previous study on 127 (97%) Australian myobatrachid species. Body size and shape variation did not follow a strong phylogenetic pattern and was not tightly correlated with environment, but there was a stronger association between morp...

不同演化支（clade）的动物若处于相似环境中，常会因趋同演化（convergent evolution）演化出相似的体型与生理适应性，但目前少有在跨大陆尺度及整个动物纲层面开展此类验证的研究。澳大利亚的生物群系（biome）多样性、地理隔离与干旱化历史，为开展大尺度宏观演化（macroevolution）模式的比较分析提供了绝佳契机。我们收集了84种（占澳大利亚雨滨蛙科（Hylidae）青蛙物种总数的98%）的形态学与环境数据，并将其划分为不同生态型（ecotype）。借助系统发育（phylogenetic）框架，我们检验了两项相关假设：其一，针对全部澳大利亚雨滨蛙科物种，验证同一生态型的青蛙具有相似的体型模式；其二，将本研究结果与此前一项针对127种（占澳大利亚龟蟾科（Myobatrachidae）青蛙物种总数的97%）的同类研究进行对比分析。研究发现，体型大小与形态变异未呈现显著的系统发育模式，且与环境的相关性并不紧密，但形态学特征与[...]之间存在更强的关联。