Data from: Testing convergence versus history: convergence dominates phenotypic evolution for over 150 million years in frogs

Striking evolutionary convergence can lead to similar sets of species in
different locations, such as in cichlid fishes and Anolis lizards, and
suggests that evolution can be repeatable and predictable across clades.
Yet, most examples of convergence involve relatively small temporal and/or
spatial scales. Some authors have speculated that at larger scales (e.g.,
across continents), differing evolutionary histories will prevent
convergence. However, few studies have compared the contrasting roles of
convergence and history, and none have done so at large scales. Here we
develop a two-part approach to test the scale over which convergence can
occur, comparing the relative importance of convergence and history in
macroevolution using phylogenetic models of adaptive evolution. We apply
this approach to data from morphology, ecology, and phylogeny from 167
species of anuran amphibians (frogs) from 10 local sites across the world,
spanning ∼160 myr of evolution. Mapping ecology on the phylogeny revealed
that similar microhabitat specialists (e.g., aquatic, arboreal) have
evolved repeatedly across clades and regions, producing many evolutionary
replicates for testing for morphological convergence. By comparing
morphological optima for clades and microhabitat types (our first test),
we find that convergence associated with microhabitat use dominates frog
morphological evolution, producing recurrent ecomorphs that together
encompass all sampled species in each community in each region. However,
our second test, which examines whether and how much species differ from
their inferred optima, shows that convergence is incomplete: that is,
phenotypes of most species are still somewhat distant from the estimated
optimum for each microhabitat, seemingly because of insufficient time for
more complete adaptation (an effect of history). Yet, these effects of
history are related to past ecologies, and not clade membership. Overall,
our study elucidates the dominant drivers of morphological evolution
across a major vertebrate clade and shows that evolution can be repeatable
at much greater temporal and spatial scales than commonly thought. It also
provides an analytical framework for testing other potential examples of
large-scale convergence.