Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2022 Jul;6(7):998-1006. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01749-4. Epub 2022 May 5.
Ungulate migrations are crucial for maintaining abundant populations and functional ecosystems. However, little is known about how or why migratory behaviour evolved in ungulates. To investigate the evolutionary origins of ungulate migration, we employed phylogenetic path analysis using a comprehensive species-level phylogeny of mammals. We found that 95 of 207 extant ungulate species are at least partially migratory, with migratory behaviour originating independently in 17 lineages. The evolution of migratory behaviour is associated with reliance on grass forage and living at higher latitudes wherein seasonal resource waves are most prevalent. Indeed, originations coincide with mid-Miocene cooling and the subsequent rise of C grasslands. Also, evolving migratory behaviour supported the evolution of larger bodies, allowing ungulates to exploit new ecological space. Reconstructions of migratory behaviour further revealed that seven of ten recently extinct species were probably migratory, suggesting that contemporary migrations are important models for understanding the ecology of the past.
有蹄类动物的迁徙对于维持丰富的种群和功能健全的生态系统至关重要。然而，人们对于有蹄类动物的迁徙行为是如何以及为何进化的知之甚少。为了研究有蹄类动物迁徙的进化起源，我们利用哺乳动物的综合物种水平系统发育树，采用系统发育路径分析。我们发现，在 207 种现存有蹄类动物中，有 95 种至少部分是迁徙的，迁徙行为在 17 个谱系中独立进化而来。迁徙行为的进化与依赖草类为食和生活在高纬度地区有关，因为那里的季节性资源波动最为普遍。实际上，起源与中更新世冷却以及随后的 C 草原的兴起相一致。此外，进化的迁徙行为支持了更大体型的进化，使有蹄类动物能够开拓新的生态空间。对迁徙行为的重建还表明，十种最近灭绝的物种中有七种可能是迁徙的，这表明当代的迁徙是理解过去生态的重要模型。
