Data from: Habitat deterioration promotes the evolution of direct development in metamorphosing species

Although metamorphosis is widespread in the animal kingdom, several
species have evolved life cycle modifications to avoid complete
metamorphosis. Some species, e.g., many salamanders and newts, have
deleted the adult stage via a process called paedomorphosis. Others, e.g.,
some frog species and marine invertebrates, no longer have a distinct
larval stage and reach maturation via direct development. Here we study
which ecological conditions can lead to the loss of metamorphosis via the
evolution of direct development. To do so, we use size-structured
consumer-resource models in conjunction with the adaptive-dynamics
approach. In case the larval habitat deteriorates, individuals will
produce larger offspring and in concert accelerate metamorphosis. While
this leads to the evolutionary transition from metamorphosis to direct
development when the adult habitat is highly favourable, the population
will go extinct in case the adult habitat does not provide sufficient food
in order to escape metamorphosis. With a phylogenetic approach we
furthermore show that among amphibians the transition of metamorphosis to
direct development is indeed, in line with model predictions, conditional
on and preceded by the evolution of larger egg sizes.