Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence

We identified hypotheses for the cause and consequences of the loss of complexity in animal signals and tested these using a genus of visually communicating lizards, the Southeast Asian Draco lizards. Males of some species have lost the headbob component from their display, which is otherwise centra...

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Main Authors: Ord, Terry J., Diesmos, Arvin, Norhayati, Ahmad, Das, Indraneil
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/1/Evolutionary%20loss%20of%20complexity%20in%20animal%20signals.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/
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https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpac057
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Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
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spelling my.unimas.ir.415372023-03-30T01:20:54Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/ Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence Ord, Terry J. Diesmos, Arvin Norhayati, Ahmad Das, Indraneil QL Zoology We identified hypotheses for the cause and consequences of the loss of complexity in animal signals and tested these using a genus of visually communicating lizards, the Southeast Asian Draco lizards. Males of some species have lost the headbob component from their display, which is otherwise central to the communication of this genus. These males instead display a large, colorful dewlap to defend territories and attract mates. This dewlap initially evolved to augment the headbob component of the display, but has become the exclusive system of communication. We tested whether the loss of headbobs was caused by relaxed selection, habitat-dependent constraints, or size-specific energetic constraints on display movement. We then examined whether the consequences of this loss have been mitigated by increased signaling effort or com- plexity in the color of the dewlap. It appears the increased cost of display movement resulting from the evolution of large body size might have contributed to the loss of headbobs and has been somewhat compensated for by the evolution of greater complexity in dewlap color. However, this evolutionary shift is unlikely to have maintained the complexity previously present in the communication system, resulting in an apparent detrimental loss of information potential. Oxford University Press 2023-03-15 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/1/Evolutionary%20loss%20of%20complexity%20in%20animal%20signals.pdf Ord, Terry J. and Diesmos, Arvin and Norhayati, Ahmad and Das, Indraneil (2023) Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence. Evolution, 77 (3). pp. 660-669. ISSN 1558-5646 https://academic.oup.com/evolut?login=false https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpac057
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic QL Zoology
spellingShingle QL Zoology
Ord, Terry J.
Diesmos, Arvin
Norhayati, Ahmad
Das, Indraneil
Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
description We identified hypotheses for the cause and consequences of the loss of complexity in animal signals and tested these using a genus of visually communicating lizards, the Southeast Asian Draco lizards. Males of some species have lost the headbob component from their display, which is otherwise central to the communication of this genus. These males instead display a large, colorful dewlap to defend territories and attract mates. This dewlap initially evolved to augment the headbob component of the display, but has become the exclusive system of communication. We tested whether the loss of headbobs was caused by relaxed selection, habitat-dependent constraints, or size-specific energetic constraints on display movement. We then examined whether the consequences of this loss have been mitigated by increased signaling effort or com- plexity in the color of the dewlap. It appears the increased cost of display movement resulting from the evolution of large body size might have contributed to the loss of headbobs and has been somewhat compensated for by the evolution of greater complexity in dewlap color. However, this evolutionary shift is unlikely to have maintained the complexity previously present in the communication system, resulting in an apparent detrimental loss of information potential.
format Article
author Ord, Terry J.
Diesmos, Arvin
Norhayati, Ahmad
Das, Indraneil
author_facet Ord, Terry J.
Diesmos, Arvin
Norhayati, Ahmad
Das, Indraneil
author_sort Ord, Terry J.
title Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
title_short Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
title_full Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
title_fullStr Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
title_full_unstemmed Evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
title_sort evolutionary loss of complexity in animal signals: cause and consequence
publisher Oxford University Press
publishDate 2023
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/1/Evolutionary%20loss%20of%20complexity%20in%20animal%20signals.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/41537/
https://academic.oup.com/evolut?login=false
https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpac057
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