Antipredator defenses predict diversification rates
2015
Arbuckle, Kevin | Speed, Michael P.
Significance Prey use a variety of mechanisms to avoid the risk of predation, including chemical defense, camouflage, and conspicuous coloration. Here we show that variation in these forms of protection can have profound effects on macroevolutionary patterns in amphibians. Chemical defense and conspicuous coloration both increase speciation rates, in line with the “escape-and-radiate” hypothesis. However, chemical defense also increases extinction rates, lowering net diversification. We therefore show that alternative defensive strategies have important macroevolutionary consequences but that these are only partially consistent with standard escape-and-radiate interpretations. Hence, we suggest a conceptual expansion of this highly influential evolutionary hypothesis. In addition, our findings may have implications for endangered species conservation by allowing some predictability of extinction risk from knowledge of antipredator defenses.
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