Connecting people around the world by synthesizing and sharing information about amphibians to enable research, education, and conservation
Convergent evolution, the independent development of similar phenotypic traits in different lineages, is a widespread phenomenon in nature. Examples range from image-forming eyes in diverse organisms to the repeated evolution of wings in tetrapods. Convergent evolution among close relatives is less-studied and often thought to be generated from shared (homologous) mechanisms, but this is not necessarily always the case. Twomey et al. (2023) studied color convergence in Ranitomeya, a relatively young, color-diverse group of Neotropical poison frogs. By combining phylogenetic analysis with examination of skin pigments and spectral reflectance data, they identified several instances of color convergence based on independent gains and losses of carotenoid and pterin pigments. In one case, red coloration evolved independently via distinct pathways: in one lineage through an increase in the red pterin pigment drosopterin, and in another lineage through red ketocarotenoids. These results demonstrate that convergent evolution can occur through “same” or “different” pathways even when the species involved are only recently diverged.
read more news222 Caecilians | 816 Salamanders | 7,698 Frogs |