Fulgione Domenico, Russo Danilo, Rivieccio Eleonora, Maselli Valeria, Avallone Bice, Mondanaro Alessandro, Giurato Giorgio, Buglione Maria
Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, 80126 Naples, Italy.
Animal Ecology and Evolution Laboratory (AnEcoEvo), Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Naples, Italy.
iScience. 2024 Dec 30;28(2):111715. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111715. eCollection 2025 Feb 21.
Using a multidisciplinary approach, we investigated whether human-controlled fire has historically influenced temporal niche partitioning between dark-diurnal and pale-nocturnal lineages of the Moorish gecko (). The pale-nocturnal variant exhibited lower skin melanin levels, smaller and fewer melanosomes, and lower plasma α-Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone levels than its dark-diurnal counterpart. Mitochondrial genome analyses indicated that the common ancestor of these gecko lineages diverged approximately 6,600 years ago, coinciding with the transition of modern humans from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agricultural societies. Species distribution models suggested coexistence between humans and geckos during the emergence of these lineages. Additionally, we demonstrated that fire attracts phototactic arthropods, concentrating prey resources. These findings imply that human-controlled fire may have created a novel foraging niche for pale-nocturnal geckos, likely driving the divergence of the two variants.
我们采用多学科方法，研究了人类控制的火在历史上是否影响了摩尔壁虎暗昼行和浅夜行谱系之间的时间生态位划分。与暗昼行变体相比，浅夜行变体的皮肤黑色素水平较低，黑素体数量较少且体积较小，血浆α-黑素细胞刺激激素水平也较低。线粒体基因组分析表明，这些壁虎谱系的共同祖先大约在6600年前分化，这与现代人类从游牧狩猎采集社会向定居农业社会的转变相吻合。物种分布模型表明，在这些谱系出现期间，人类和壁虎共存。此外，我们证明火会吸引趋光节肢动物，从而集中猎物资源。这些发现意味着人类控制的火可能为浅夜行壁虎创造了一个新的觅食生态位，可能推动了这两种变体的分化。
