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 phylog...

显著的进化趋同(evolutionary convergence)可使不同地理区域形成相似的物种类群，典型案例包括慈鲷鱼类(cichlid fishes)与安乐蜥属蜥蜴(Anolis lizards)，这表明进化在演化支(clades)层面具备可重复性与可预测性。然而，当前已报道的多数趋同实例仅局限于相对较小的时间或空间尺度。部分学者据此推测，在更大尺度（如跨大陆尺度）下，差异化的进化历史会阻碍趋同现象的发生。但目前鲜有研究对比进化趋同与历史因素的相对作用，且尚无研究在大尺度下开展此类系统性对比。本研究构建了两阶段研究框架，用以探明进化趋同可发生的尺度范围，并基于适应性进化的系统发育模型，对比进化趋同与历史因素在宏进化(macroevolution)过程中的相对重要性。我们将该框架应用于全球10个采样点的167种无尾两栖类(anuran amphibians，即蛙类)的形态学、生态学与系统发育数据，研究覆盖的进化历程跨度约1.6亿年。将生态学特征映射至系统发育（phylog...）