Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA.
Science. 2014 Oct 24;346(6208):463-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1257008.
In recent years, biologists have increasingly recognized that evolutionary change can occur rapidly when natural selection is strong; thus, real-time studies of evolution can be used to test classic evolutionary hypotheses directly. One such hypothesis is that negative interactions between closely related species can drive phenotypic divergence. Such divergence is thought to be ubiquitous, though well-documented cases are surprisingly rare. On small islands in Florida, we found that the lizard Anolis carolinensis moved to higher perches following invasion by Anolis sagrei and, in response, adaptively evolved larger toepads after only 20 generations. These results illustrate that interspecific interactions between closely related species can drive evolutionary change on observable time scales.
近年来，生物学家越来越认识到，当自然选择较强时，进化变化可以迅速发生；因此，可以利用实时进化研究直接检验经典进化假说。其中一个假说认为，密切相关物种之间的负相互作用可以促使表型分歧。这种分歧被认为是普遍存在的，但有据可查的案例却出奇地罕见。在佛罗里达州的小岛上，我们发现，当卡罗莱纳蜥蜴被萨氏变色蜥入侵后，它们会移动到更高的栖息处，而作为回应，在仅仅 20 代之后，它们就适应性地进化出了更大的脚趾垫。这些结果表明，密切相关物种之间的种间相互作用可以在可观察的时间尺度上推动进化变化。
