Adult frogs and tadpoles have different macroevolutionary patterns across the Australian continent

Developmental changes through an animal’s life are generally understood to contribute to the resulting adult morphology. A possible exception are species with complex life cycles, where individuals pass through distinct ecological and morphological life stages during their ontogeny, ending with metamorphosis to the adult form. Antagonistic selection is expected to drive low genetic correlations between life stages, theoretically permitting stages to evolve independently. Using the Australian frog radiation, we examine the evolutionary consequences on morphological evolution when life stages are under different selective pressures. We use morphometrics to characterise body shape of tadpoles and adults across 166 species of frog and investigate similarities in the two resulting morphological spaces (morphospaces) to test for concerted evolution across metamorphosis in trait variation during speciation. A clear pattern emerges: Australian frogs and their tadpoles are evolving independently...