Evolutionary routes to phenotypic convergence in vertebrates
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: School of Biosciences
Abstract
Why isn't there more diversity of Life on Earth? There are millions of species on Earth, but many distantly related species have strikingly similar phenotypes, suggesting that biodiversity is in fact far less varied than we might expect. For example, sharks and dolphins have remarkably similar body shapes, but their most recent common ancestor lived over 290 million years ago. One reason for this repetition of forms is convergent evolution - the evolution of similarities in unrelated species. There are hundreds of examples of convergence in myriad traits including morphology, genes, ecological niches, life-history strategies and behaviour. Convergence is a central concept in evolutionary biology because it informs understanding of many fundamental evolutionary patterns and processes, including the role of constraints in evolution, morphological diversity, adaptive radiations and natural selection.
Convergent evolution is often considered to be a ubiquitous feature of life on Earth. Yet, despite many striking examples and a long history of study, we currently lack a comprehensive understanding of both patterns of, and processes driving convergence. Many examples have never been properly quantified, and those that have been explored more thoroughly use a variety of methods, taxa, traits, and scales, preventing recognition of general patterns. We have identified two critical knowledge gaps and key questions:
1) A lack of understanding of broad-scale phylogenetic patterns of convergence. We will therefore ask, how frequently does convergent evolution occur at broad phylogenetic scales and how strong are examples of convergence?
2) A lack of understanding of the processes leading to convergence across evolutionary scales. To address this we will ask, what are the micro- and macroevolutionary mechanisms acting on species traits that lead to convergence?
Advances in our understanding of the patterns and processes driving convergent evolution have been hampered by a lack of suitable methods and data. Answering the key questions above requires a new conceptual and analytical framework for understanding how convergent phenotypes evolve. To solve these challenges, we will develop a framework to measure the extent of convergent evolution and identify the most likely evolutionary routes to phenotypic convergence. Our methods build on microevolutionary and adaptive radiation theory, and recent methodological advances designed by the research team. We will develop and test the performance of our framework using our recently collected 3D beak morphology dataset from >8,700 bird species, which will allow us to test for convergence at multiple phylogenetic scales. We will then apply our framework to diverse examples of morphological evolution to identify broad-scale patterns in convergence across the vertebrate tree of life. The proposed research is timely because phenotypic datasets of such breadth and ecological relevance have only recently become available (and are rapidly increasing in number and trait/taxonomic coverage) and coincide with major advances in computational methods to assess convergence.
The outcomes of our proposed work will provide a major advance in our understanding of convergent evolution. These advances are critical to driving a step change in our understanding of the nature of limits to evolution and, as a consequence, the processes that gave rise to the diversity of life on Earth.
Convergent evolution is often considered to be a ubiquitous feature of life on Earth. Yet, despite many striking examples and a long history of study, we currently lack a comprehensive understanding of both patterns of, and processes driving convergence. Many examples have never been properly quantified, and those that have been explored more thoroughly use a variety of methods, taxa, traits, and scales, preventing recognition of general patterns. We have identified two critical knowledge gaps and key questions:
1) A lack of understanding of broad-scale phylogenetic patterns of convergence. We will therefore ask, how frequently does convergent evolution occur at broad phylogenetic scales and how strong are examples of convergence?
2) A lack of understanding of the processes leading to convergence across evolutionary scales. To address this we will ask, what are the micro- and macroevolutionary mechanisms acting on species traits that lead to convergence?
Advances in our understanding of the patterns and processes driving convergent evolution have been hampered by a lack of suitable methods and data. Answering the key questions above requires a new conceptual and analytical framework for understanding how convergent phenotypes evolve. To solve these challenges, we will develop a framework to measure the extent of convergent evolution and identify the most likely evolutionary routes to phenotypic convergence. Our methods build on microevolutionary and adaptive radiation theory, and recent methodological advances designed by the research team. We will develop and test the performance of our framework using our recently collected 3D beak morphology dataset from >8,700 bird species, which will allow us to test for convergence at multiple phylogenetic scales. We will then apply our framework to diverse examples of morphological evolution to identify broad-scale patterns in convergence across the vertebrate tree of life. The proposed research is timely because phenotypic datasets of such breadth and ecological relevance have only recently become available (and are rapidly increasing in number and trait/taxonomic coverage) and coincide with major advances in computational methods to assess convergence.
The outcomes of our proposed work will provide a major advance in our understanding of convergent evolution. These advances are critical to driving a step change in our understanding of the nature of limits to evolution and, as a consequence, the processes that gave rise to the diversity of life on Earth.
