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Dryad

Data from: Signal detection shapes ornament allometry in functionally convergent Caribbean Anolis and Southeast Asian Draco lizards

Cite this dataset

Ord, Terry; Summers, Thomas (2022). Data from: Signal detection shapes ornament allometry in functionally convergent Caribbean Anolis and Southeast Asian Draco lizards [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz08wg

Abstract

Visual ornaments have long been assumed to evolve hyper-allometry as an outcome of sexual selection. Yet growing evidence suggests many sexually-selected morphologies can exhibit other scaling patterns with body size, including hypo-allometry. The large conspicuous throat fan, or dewlap, of arboreal Caribbean Anolis lizards was one ornament previously thought to conform to the classical expectation of hyper-allometry. We re-evaluated this classic example alongside a second arboreal group of lizards that has also independently evolved a functionally equivalent dewlap, the Southeast Asian Draco lizards. Across multiple closely-related species in both genera, the Anolis and Draco dewlaps were either isometric or had hypo-allometric scaling patterns. In the case of the Anolis dewlap, variation in dewlap allometry was predicted by the distance of conspecifics and the light environment in which the dewlap was typically viewed. Signal efficacy therefore appears to have driven the evolution of hypo-allometry in what was originally thought to be a sexually-selected ornament with hyper-allometry. Our findings suggest that other elaborate morphological structures used in social communication might similarly exhibit isometric or hypo-allometric scaling patterns because of environmental constraints on signal detection.

Methods

Please see published article for full details on methods of data collection

Usage notes

Data is given in .csv format and can be opened with any program

Funding

UNSW Sydney