Data from: Coral snakes predict the evolution of mimicry across New World snakes

Batesian mimicry, in which harmless species (mimics) deter predators by deceitfully imitating the warning signals of noxious species (models), generates striking cases of phenotypic convergence that are classic examples of evolution by natural selection. However, mimicry of venomous coral snakes has remained controversial because of unresolved conflict between the predictions of mimicry theory and empirical patterns in the distribution and abundance of snakes. Here we integrate distributional, phenotypic and phylogenetic data across all New World snake species to demonstrate that shifts to mimetic coloration in nonvenomous snakes are highly correlated with coral snakes in both space and time, providing overwhelming support for Batesian mimicry. We also find that bidirectional transitions between mimetic and cryptic coloration are unexpectedly frequent over both long- and short-time scales, challenging traditional views of mimicry as a stable evolutionary ‘end point’ and suggesting that insect and snake mimicry may have different evolutionary dynamics.贝茨拟态（Batesian mimicry）指无害物种（拟态者）通过欺骗性模仿有毒物种（被拟态者）的警戒信号来威慑捕食者，该现象催生了诸多引人注目的表型趋同案例，是自然选择演化的经典范例。然而，针对有毒珊瑚蛇的拟态研究仍存在争议，原因在于拟态理论的预测与蛇类分布和丰度的实证模式之间存在未解决的冲突。本研究整合了所有新世界蛇类的分布、表型及系统发育数据，证明非有毒蛇类向拟态体色的演化转变在时空维度上均与珊瑚蛇呈现高度相关性，为贝茨拟态假说提供了压倒性的支持证据。我们还发现，拟态体色与隐蔽体色之间的双向转变在长短时间尺度上均意外频繁，这挑战了将拟态视为稳定演化“终点”的传统观点，并表明昆虫与蛇类的拟态可能具有不同的演化动力学。