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The Evolutionary Ecology of Metamorphosis
The American Naturalist
|April 20, 2019
Summary
Metamorphosis is widespread because it helps animals specialize on different food sources. This life-history strategy is hard to evolve but difficult to abandon, even leading to extinction.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Ecology
- Population dynamics
Background:
- Metamorphosis is a widespread animal life-history strategy.
- Empirical data suggest metamorphosis has evolved infrequently.
- The evolutionary drivers and persistence of metamorphosis remain debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary origins and maintenance of metamorphosis.
- To understand why metamorphosis is so prevalent across animal species.
- To explore the ecological conditions favoring the evolution of metamorphosis.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a size-structured population model.
- Employed the adaptive-dynamics approach to study evolution.
- Modeled competition for two distinct food resources.
Main Results:
- Metamorphosis evolves to resolve resource competition, enabling size-based food specialization.
- The evolution of metamorphosis is contingent on a high supply rate of a secondary food source.
- Deteriorating ecological conditions can lead to postponed metamorphosis and evolutionary trapping, risking population extinction.
Conclusions:
- Metamorphosis is evolutionarily challenging to develop but robust once established.
- The difficulty in losing metamorphosis explains its widespread occurrence despite rare evolutionary origins.
- Metamorphosis provides an adaptive solution to ecological challenges, yet can lead to population vulnerability.
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