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Related Experiment Videos

Predisposed to adapt? Clade-level differences in characters affecting swimming performance in damselflies.

M A McPeek1

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. mark.mcpeek@dartmouth.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|February 24, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Enallagma damselflies adapted to new predators by swimming, but this ability evolved in only one clade. Pre-existing traits in fish lakes explain why this clade, not the other, successfully colonized fishless waters.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecology
  • Behavioral ecology

Background:

  • Two Enallagma damselfly clades historically co-existed with fish.
  • One clade recently adapted to fishless waters with dragonfly predators.
  • Adaptations include behavioral shifts (swimming), morphological changes (faster swimming), and biochemical enhancements (arginine kinase activity).

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate clade-level differences in ancestral fish-lake habitats.
  • Determine if these differences predispose one clade to habitat shifts.
  • Explain why habitat shifts occurred in only one Enallagma clade.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of Enallagma species from fish-lake habitats.
  • Laboratory-based behavioral assays measuring swimming propensity and speed.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Biochemical assays measuring mass-specific arginine kinase activity.

    • Main Results:

    • Species in the successful clade exhibit higher swimming propensity and speed in laboratory settings.
    • These species also show higher mass-specific arginine kinase activity compared to the other clade.
    • The other clade, with no species in fishless waters, lacks these pre-adaptive traits.

    Conclusions:

    • Clade-level differences in ancestral fish-lake environments facilitated adaptation in one clade.
    • Pre-existing behavioral and biochemical traits influenced the success of colonization in fishless waters.
    • Founder events and community structure dynamics are key factors in evolutionary habitat shifts.