Banca de DEFESA: LAURA VANESSA FERREIRA DOS SANTOS

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
DISCENTE : LAURA VANESSA FERREIRA DOS SANTOS
DATA : 05/08/2021
HORA: 14:00
LOCAL: PPG Ecologia e Conservação - videoconferência
TÍTULO:

Range size and climatic niche evolution of Amphisbaena (Squamata, Amphisbaenia).

PALAVRAS-CHAVES:

Ecological Niche Modelling, Macroecology, PASTIS, Reptilia.

PÁGINAS: 83
GRANDE ÁREA: Ciências Biológicas
ÁREA: Ecologia
SUBÁREA: Ecologia Teórica
RESUMO:

Climate is one of the main determinants of species distribution patterns and, together with life history particularities, will also influence species range size. Since the species climatic niches evolve over space and time, they will clearly influence lineage diversification patterns. The more evolutionarily related the species are, they will tend to present higher behavioral, ecological and morphological similarities, and there is also a tendency for species to maintain a climatic niche that is similar to that used by their ancestors. In this work, we investigated the patterns of climatic niche and range size evolution of species of the genus Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenia) under a phylogenetically informed perspective and taking into account their differences in body size. These organisms are highly adapted burrowing animals, which has clear implications on their thermal physiology, since they will be under the restrictions of underground environments for their thermoregulation. In this way, and considering that these are ectothermic animals, their activity patterns are highly influenced by abiotic factors, specifically by temperature and humidity variations. Thus, the burrowing habits might be one of the main determinants that led to the differentiation of climatic niches within the group, since it is directly related to their morphological characteristics and locomotion strategies. Being so, we investigated the correlations among the ecological variables of niche breadth and range size with morphological traits assumed to be determinants of dispersion probability of the species (snout-vent length and body diameter). The analyses were done using all 107 currently recognized Amphisbaena species, while controlling for their evolutionary relationships. Considering the energetical restrictions related to body size, we hypothesized that species depicting small body sizes will tend to have more specialized physiological demands and, therefore, more restricted range sizes and smaller climatic niche breadths. To do so, we compiled data on the distribution and body size of Amphisbaena from the scientific literature, and used genetic data and a philogenetic imputation method to generate phylogenetic hypothesis including the species for which no genetic data was available on GenBank. Our results indicate that larger species tend to depict larger range sizes, and that this pattern has no phylogenetic autocorrelation. These findings are important advances in developing theoretical ecological and biogeographic interpretations on the evolutionary patterns of this group.

MEMBROS DA BANCA:
Presidente - 005.506.021-86 - FABRÍCIUS MAIA CHAVES BICALHO DOMINGOS - NENHUMA
Interno - 014.459.411-04 - ALESSANDRO RIBEIRO DE MORAIS - UFG
Externo à Instituição - LEVI CARINA TERRIBILE - UFJ