Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation in Anolis lizards

Abstract

Sexual dimorphism is widespread and substantial throughout the animal world1,2. It is surprising, then, that such a pervasive source of biological diversity has not been integrated into studies of adaptive radiation, despite extensive and growing attention to both phenomena1,3,4,5,6,7. Rather, most studies of adaptive radiation either group individuals without regard to sex or focus solely on one sex. Here we show that sexual differences contribute substantially to the ecomorphological diversity produced by the adaptive radiations of West Indian Anolis lizards: within anole species, males and females occupy mostly non-overlapping parts of morphological space; the overall extent of sexual variation is large relative to interspecific variation; and the degree of variation depends on ecological type. Thus, when sexual dimorphism in ecologically relevant traits is substantial, ignoring its contribution may significantly underestimate the adaptive component of evolutionary radiation. Conversely, if sexual dimorphism and interspecific divergence are alternative means of ecological diversification, then the degree of sexual dimorphism may be negatively related to the extent of adaptive radiation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Shape dimorphism among the ecomorphs.
Figure 2: Three-dimensional visualization of morphological space.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Delph, L. F. Processes that constrain and facilitate the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Am. Nat. 166, S1–S4 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Andersson, M. B. Sexual Selection (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1994)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Schluter, D. The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gillespie, R. Community assembly through adaptive radiation in Hawaiian spiders. Science 303, 356–359 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Temeles, E. J., Pan, I. L., Brennan, J. L. & Horwitt, J. N. Evidence for ecological causation of sexual dimorphism in a hummingbird. Science 289, 441–443 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Fukami, T., Beaumont, H. J. E., Zhang, X.-X. & Rainey, P. B. Immigration history controls diversification in experimental adaptive radiation. Nature 446, 436–439 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ricklefs, R. E. Cladogenesis and morphological diversification in passerine birds. Nature 430, 338–341 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Schoener, T. W. Size patterns in West Indian Anolis lizards. I. Size and species diversity. Syst. Zool. 18, 386–401 (1969)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Schoener, T. W. Ecological significance of sexual dimorphism in size in the lizard Anolis conspersus. Science 155, 474–476 (1967)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dayan, T. & Simberloff, D. Character displacement, sexual dimorphism, and morphological variation among British and Irish mustelids. Ecology 75, 1063–1073 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Williams, E. E. in Lizard Ecology: Studies of a Model Organism (eds Huey, R. B., Pianka, E. R. & Schoener, T. W.) 326–270 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1983)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Losos, J. B., Jackman, T. R., Larson, A., de Queiroz, K. & Rodríguez-Schettino, L. Contingency and determinism in replicated adaptive radiations of island lizards. Science 279, 2115–2118 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Stamps, J. A. in Lizard Ecology: Studies Of A Model Organism (eds Huey, R. B., Pianka, E. R. & Schoener, T. W.) 169–204 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1983)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Butler, M. A., Schoener, T. W. & Losos, J. B. The relationship between sexual size dimorphism and habitat use in Greater Antillean Anolis lizards. Evolution 54, 259–272 (2000)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Butler, M. A. & Losos, J. B. Multivariate sexual dimorphism, sexual selection, and adaptation in Greater Antillean Anolis lizards. Ecol. Monogr. 72, 541–559 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Losos, J. B. Ecomorphology, performance capability, and scaling of West Indian Anolis lizards: An evolutionary analysis. Ecol. Monogr. 60, 369–388 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Selander, R. K. in Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, 1871–1971 (ed. Campbell, B. G.) 180–230 (Aldine, Chicago, 1972)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hedrick, A. V. & Temeles, E. J. The evolution of sexual dimorphism in animals: Hypotheses and tests. Trends Ecol. Evol. 4, 136–138 (1989)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hendry, A. P., Kelly, M. L., Kinnison, M. T. & Reznick, D. N. Parallel evolution of the sexes? Effects of predation and habitat features on the size and shape of wild guppies. J. Evol. Biol. 19, 741–754 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Jarman, P. J. Social-organization of antelope in relation to their ecology. Behaviour 48, 215–269 (1974)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Shine, R. Ecological causes for the evolution of sexual dimorphism: A review of the evidence. Q. Rev. Biol. 64, 419–461 (1989)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Schoener, T. W. in Biology of the Reptilia Vol. 7 (eds Gans, C. & Tinkle, D. W.) 35–136 (Academic, New York, 1977)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Slatkin, M. Ecological causes of sexual dimorphism. Evolution 38, 622–630 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Bolnick, D. I. & Doebeli, M. Sexual dimorphism and adaptive speciation: Two sides of the same ecological coin. Evolution 57, 2433–2449 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Waxman, D. & Gavrilets, S. 20 questions on adaptive dynamics. J. Evol. Biol. 18, 1139–1154 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Losos, J. B. in Adaptive Speciation (eds Dieckmann, U., Doebeli, M., Metz, J. A. J. & Tautz, D.) 335–343 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Losos, J. B., Marks, J. C. & Schoener, T. W. Habitat use and ecological interactions of an introduced and a native species of Anolis lizard on Grand Cayman. Oecologia 95, 525–532 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Langerhans, R. B. & DeWitt, T. J. Shared and unique features of evolutionary diversification. Am. Nat. 164, 335–349 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Olejnik, S. & Algina, J. Measures of effect size for comparative studies: Applications, interpretations, and limitations. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 25, 241–286 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Duong, T. ks: Kernal Smoothing, version 1.3.4. A software package written in the R statistical language for kernal smoothing, discriminant function analysis, and associated 2- and 3D plotting. 〈http://CRAN.R-project.org/〉 (2005)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Science Foundation for financial support. We thank J. Higa, L.-R. Chu and C. K. Wang for assistance in the field; T. Duong and A. King for advice on analyses; and L. Harmon, J. Kolbe, B. Langerhans, S. Gavrilets and D. Simberloff for critical review of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marguerite A. Butler.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Notes withSupplementary Tables 1-8, Supplementary Figures 1-2 with Legends, Supplementary Video Legend and additional references. (PDF 1241 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

This file contains Supplementary Video 1 which shows a rotating view of the 3D positions of male and female ecomorph densities shown in figure 2. (MOV 4753 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Butler, M., Sawyer, S. & Losos, J. Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation in Anolis lizards. Nature 447, 202–205 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05774

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05774

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing