Friends or foes? Plant-animal coevolutionary history is driven by both
mutualistic and antagonistic interactions
- Lisieux Fuzessy,
- Juan Antonio Balbuena,
- Omer Nevo,
- Jadelys Tonos,
- Bastien Papinot,
- Daniel Park,
- Daniel Sol,
- Kim Valenta,
- Onja Razafindratsima,
- Miguel Verdu
Omer Nevo
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Author ProfileAbstract
Coevolution played a central role in shaping biodiversity. However,
coevolutionary events driving reciprocal diversification between
interacting partners lack empirical evidences. Examples of
diversification arising from mutualisms and antagonisms at different
trophic levels are scarce, which limits our understanding on how complex
relationships between species arise within communities. By adopting a
cophylogenetic framework, we investigated whether congruence in
plant-lemur phylogenies are driven by mutualisms and antagonisms in
Madagascar, where endemic species have evolved within a unique isolated
biogeographical context. Although we found weak support for coevolution,
this is not to say that lemurs and plants did not share evolutionary
history. Weak cophylogenetic signals do not necessarily imply lack of
co-diversification. Rather, our results suggest that vertebrates and
plants influenced each other evolution, but in a multi-specific context
where the cophylogenetic process leaded to spatio-temporal asymmetries
and shifts between periods of coevolution and independent evolution,
ultimately resulting in a weak, continuous and diffuse process.