Data from: Potential rapid evolution of foot morphology in Italian plethodontid salamanders (Hydromantes strinatii) following the colonization of an artificial cave

How organisms respond to environmental change is a long-standing question in evolutionary biology. Species invading novel habitats provide an opportunity to examine contemporary evolution in action, and decipher the pace of evolutionary change over short time scales. Here we characterized phenotypic evolution in the Italian plethodontid salamander, Hydromantes strinatii following the recent colonization of an artificial cave by a forest floor population. When compared with a nearby and genetically related population in the natural forest floor and a nearby cave population, the artificial cave population displayed significant differences in overall foot shape, with more inter-digital webbing relative to the other populations. Further, this population evolved significantly larger feet, which corresponded more closely to those found in other cave populations than to forest floor populations to which the cave population is closely related. Finally, we quantified the rate of evolution for both foot shape and foot area, and found that both traits displayed large and significant evolutionary rates, at levels corresponding to other classic cases of rapid evolution in vertebrates. Together these findings reveal that the response to novel environmental pressures can be large and rapid, and that the anatomical shifts observed in the artificial cave population of H. strinatii may represent a case of rapid evolution in response to novel environmental pressures.生物如何响应环境变化，是进化生物学领域长期以来的核心科学问题之一。入侵新生境的物种为研究者提供了观测实时发生的当代进化、解析短时间尺度内进化变化速率的绝佳契机。本研究以近期由林床种群定居人工洞穴的意大利无肺螈科蝾螈（plethodontid salamander）斯特里纳蒂氏洞螈（Hydromantes strinatii）为研究对象，对其表型进化特征展开了系统表征。相较于邻近且遗传关系紧密的天然林床种群，以及另一邻近洞穴种群，该人工洞穴种群的整体足形呈现显著差异：其趾间蹼相较于其他种群更为发达。此外，该种群进化出了显著更大的足部，其足形特征与其他洞穴种群更为接近，而非与其遗传关系紧密的林床种群。最后，本研究对足形与足面积两项性状的进化速率进行了量化分析，结果显示两项性状均呈现出显著且极高的进化速率，其速率水平可与脊椎动物中其他经典快速进化案例相媲美。综合以上研究结果可见，生物对新型环境压力的响应可以是剧烈且快速的；本研究中观测到的斯特里纳蒂氏洞螈人工洞穴种群的解剖结构变化，或代表了一类针对新型环境压力的快速进化案例。