Convergent evolution of karst habitat preference and its ecomorphological correlation in three species of Bent-toed Geckos (Cyrtodactylus) from Peninsular Malaysia

By studying ecomorophology in the context of phylogeny, researchers can parse out similarity due to common ancestry versus that due to convergence. This is especially true among relatively closely related species where both phylogenetic and environmental constraints may be operating simultaneously. We explored these issues among three karst-associated species from two lineages of Cyrtodactylus-the sworderi group from Peninsular Malaysia and the swamp Glade from Peninsular Malaysia and western Indonesia of the agamensis group. A stochastic character mapping analysis using five different habitat preferences corroborated a larger previous analysis in recovering a general habitat preference as an ancestial condition for all habitat preferences and a kart habitat preference in C. guakanthanensis and C. gunungsenyumensis of the sworderi group and C. metropolis of the swamp Glade as convergently evolved. Multivariate and univariate analyses of 10 morphometric characters revealed that the ecomorphological similarity between C. guakanthanensis and C. gunungsenyumensis of the sworderi group was also convergent. The ecomorphology of C. metropolis of the swamp Glade was intermediate between a karst-adapted ecomorphology and a swamp-generalists ecomorphology. Of the 10 morphometric characters employed in this analysis, only three-head length, head width, and forelimb width-showed any signs of phylogenetic signal. Cyrtodactylus metropolis is hypothesized to be a recently refuged swamp-dwelling species that frequented the Batu Caves environments prior to urbanization of the surrounding swamp habitat to which it is now confined.

Automated summary

By studying ecomorphology in the context of phylogeny, researchers can distinguish similarities due to common ancestry from those due to convergence. It was found that some species in the sworderi group and swamp Glade group exhibit convergent ecomorphological traits.