Phylogenetic congruence between Neotropical primates and plants is
driven by frugivory
- Lisieux Fuzessy,
- Fernando Silveira,
- Laurence Culot,
- Pedro Jordano,
- Miguel Verdu
Fernando Silveira
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas
Author ProfileAbstract
Seed dispersal, by entailing multiple benefits to plants and frugivores,
potential drives trait evolution and species diversification. Frugivory
and seed dispersal shaped the coevolution of interacting clades, with
consequences to speciation and diversification evidenced for e.g.,
primates. Evidences for macro-coevolutionary patterns in multi-specific,
plant-animal mutualisms are scarce, and the mechanisms driven them
remain unexplored. We tested for phylogenetic congruences in
primate-plant interactions in Neotropics and show that both primates and
plants share evolutionary history. Phylogenetic congruence between
Platyrrhini and Angiosperms was asymmetrically driven by the most
generalist primates interacting with a wide-range of specialist
Angiosperms. Consistently similar eco-evolutionary dynamics seem to be
operating irrespective of local assemblages, since the signal emerged
independently across three Neotropical regions. Our analysis supports
the idea that macroevolutionary, coevolved patterns among interacting
mutualistic partners are driven by super-generalist taxa. Trait
convergence among multiple partners within multi-specific assemblages
appears as a mechanism favouring these coevolved outcomes.Feb 2022Published in Ecology Letters volume 25 issue 2 on pages 320-329. 10.1111/ele.13918