Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Evolutionary significance of the variation in acoustic communication of a cryptic nocturnal primate radiation (Microcebus spp.)

Hasiniaina, Alida Frankline; Radespiel, Ute; Kessler, Sharon E.; Rina Evasoa, Mamy; Rasoloharijaona, Solofonirina; Randrianambinina, Blanchard; Zimmermann, Elke; Schmidt, Sabine; Scheumann, Marina

Evolutionary significance of the variation in acoustic communication of a cryptic nocturnal primate radiation (Microcebus spp.) Thumbnail


Authors

Alida Frankline Hasiniaina

Ute Radespiel

Sharon E. Kessler

Mamy Rina Evasoa

Solofonirina Rasoloharijaona

Blanchard Randrianambinina

Elke Zimmermann

Sabine Schmidt

Marina Scheumann



Abstract

Acoustic phenotypic variation is of major importance for speciation and the evolution of species diversity. Whereas selective and stochastic forces shaping the acoustic divergence of signaling systems are well studied in insects, frogs, and birds, knowledge on the processes driving acoustic phenotypic evolution in mammals is limited. We quantified the acoustic variation of a call type exchanged during agonistic encounters across eight distinct species of the smallest‐bodied nocturnal primate radiation, the Malagasy mouse lemurs. The species live in two different habitats (dry forest vs. humid forest), differ in geographic distance to each other, and belong to four distinct phylogenetic clades within the genus. Genetically defined species were discriminated reliably on the phenotypic level based on their acoustic distinctiveness in a discriminant function analysis. Acoustic variation was explained by genetic distance, whereas differences in morphology, forest type, or geographic distance had no effect. The strong impact of genetics was supported by a correlation between acoustic and genetic distance and the high agreement in branching pattern between the acoustic and molecular phylogenetic trees. In sum, stochastic factors such as genetic drift best explained acoustic diversification in a social communication call of mouse lemurs.

Citation

Hasiniaina, A. F., Radespiel, U., Kessler, S. E., Rina Evasoa, M., Rasoloharijaona, S., Randrianambinina, B., …Scheumann, M. (2020). Evolutionary significance of the variation in acoustic communication of a cryptic nocturnal primate radiation (Microcebus spp.). Ecology and Evolution, 10(8), 3784-3797. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6177

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 18, 2020
Online Publication Date Mar 12, 2020
Publication Date Apr 1, 2020
Deposit Date Mar 13, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 13, 2020
Journal Ecology and Evolution
Electronic ISSN 2045-7758
Publisher Wiley Open Access
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 8
Pages 3784-3797
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6177

Files

Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (1.5 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






You might also like



Downloadable Citations