Herrel Anthony, Huyghe Katleen, Vanhooydonck Bieke, Backeljau Thierry, Breugelmans Karin, Grbac Irena, Van Damme Raoul, Irschick Duncan J
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 25;105(12):4792-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0711998105. Epub 2008 Mar 14.
Although rapid adaptive changes in morphology on ecological time scales are now well documented in natural populations, the effects of such changes on whole-organism performance capacity and the consequences on ecological dynamics at the population level are often unclear. Here we show how lizards have rapidly evolved differences in head morphology, bite strength, and digestive tract structure after experimental introduction into a novel environment. Despite the short time scale ( approximately 36 years) since this introduction, these changes in morphology and performance parallel those typically documented among species and even families of lizards in both the type and extent of their specialization. Moreover, these changes have occurred side-by-side with dramatic changes in population density and social structure, providing a compelling example of how the invasion of a novel habitat can evolutionarily drive multiple aspects of the phenotype.
尽管目前在自然种群中，生态时间尺度上形态的快速适应性变化已有充分记录，但这种变化对整个生物体性能的影响以及在种群水平上对生态动态的后果往往并不明确。在此，我们展示了蜥蜴在被实验性引入新环境后，头部形态、咬合力和消化道结构是如何迅速进化出差异的。尽管自引入以来时间尺度较短（约36年），但形态和性能的这些变化在类型和专业化程度上与蜥蜴物种甚至科之间通常记录的变化相似。此外，这些变化与种群密度和社会结构的巨大变化同时发生，为新栖息地的入侵如何在进化上驱动表型的多个方面提供了一个引人注目的例子。
