Drivers of phenotypic divergence in a Mesoamerican highland bird

PeerJ

article

Sahid M. Robles-Bello¹  Melisa Vázquez-López¹  Sandra M. Ramírez-Barrera¹  Alondra K. Terrones-Ramírez¹  Blanca E. Hernández-Baños¹ 

[1] Facultad de Ciencias, Biología Evolutiva, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México;Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

关键词: Morphometric variation;    Genetic variation;    Piranga bidentata;    Cardinalidae;    Carotenoid;    Plumage color;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.12901

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Animals derive their coloration from a variety of pigments as well as non-pigmentary structural features. One of the most widespread types of pigments are carotenoids, which are used by all invertebrate taxa and most vertebrate orders to generate red, pink, orange and yellow coloration. Despite their widespread use by diverse animal groups, animals obligately obtain carotenoid pigments from diet. Carotenoid-based coloration is therefore modulated by evolutionary and ecological processes that affect the acquisition and deposition of these pigments into tegumentary structures. The Flame-colored Tanager (Piranga bidentata) is a highland songbird in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae) that is distributed from Mexican sierras through Central America up to western Panama. While female plumage throughout its entire range is predominantly yellow, males exhibit a noticeable split in ventral plumage color, which is bright orange on the West slope and the Tres Marias Islands and blood red in Eastern Mexico and Central America. We used Multiple Regression on Matrices (MRM) to evaluate the relative contributions of geographic distance, climate and genetic distance on color divergence and body differences between geographically disjunct populations. We found that differentiation in carotenoid plumage coloration was mainly explained by rainfall differences between disjunct populations, whereas body size differences was best explained by variation in the annual mean temperature and temperature of coldest quarter. These results indicate that climate is a strong driver of phenotypic divergence in Piranga bidentata.

【 授权许可】

CC BY