Does ecological specialization transcend scale? Habitat partitioning among individuals and species of Anolis lizards

Ecological specialization is common across all levels of biological organization, raising the question of whether the evolution of specialization at one scale in a taxon is linked to specialization at other scales. Anolis lizards have diversified repeatedly along axes of habitat use, but it remains unknown if this diversification into habitat use specialists is underlain by individual specialization. From repeated observations of individuals in a population of Anolis sagrei in Florida, we show that the extent of habitat use specialization among individuals is comparable to the extent of specialization in the same traits among ten sympatric Anolis habitat specialist species in Cuba. However, the adaptive correlations between habitat use and morphology commonly seen across species of Anolis were not observed across individuals in the sampled population. Our results therefore suggest that while patterns of ecological specialization can transcend scale, these parallels are the consequence o...

生态特化在生物组织的所有层级中普遍存在，这引发了一个核心科学问题：某一类群在某一尺度下的特化演化，是否与其他尺度下的特化存在关联？安乐蜥（Anolis）类群已多次沿生境利用维度发生适应性分化，但目前仍不清楚这种向生境特化类群的分化，是否以个体特化为基础。本研究通过对佛罗里达州棕安乐蜥（Anolis sagrei）种群个体的重复观测，表明该种群内个体间的生境利用特化程度，与古巴境内10个同域分布的安乐蜥生境特化物种间的相同性状特化程度相当。然而，跨安乐蜥物种普遍存在的生境利用与形态间的适应性关联，在本次采样种群的个体间并未被观测到。因此，本研究结果表明，尽管生态特化的格局可以跨尺度存在，但这种平行性实为……