Key innovations and island colonization as engines of evolutionary diversification: a comparative test with the Australasian diplodactyloid geckos

The acquisition of key innovations and the invasion of new areas constitute two major processes that facilitate ecological opportunity and subsequent evolutionary diversification. Using a major lizard radiation as a model, the Australasian diplodactyloid geckos, we explored the effects of two key innovations (adhesive toepads and a snake-like phenotype) and the invasion of new environments (island colonization) in promoting the evolution of phenotypic and species diversity. We found no evidence that toepads had significantly increased evolutionary diversification, which challenges the common assumption that the evolution of toepads has been responsible for the extensive radiation of geckos. In contrast, a snakelike phenotype was associated with increased rates of body size evolution and, to a lesser extent, species diversification. However, the clearest impact on evolutionary diversification has been the colonization of New Zealand and New Caledonia, which were associated with increased...