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The macroevolutionary dynamics of activity pattern in mammals: Primates in context.

Jeremiah E Scott1

  • 1Department of Medical Anatomical Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA 91766, USA.

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Cathemerality, an activity pattern of being active day and night, is rare in mammals. This study reveals that cathemeral lineages are not more prone to extinction but tend to transition out of this state more frequently than other activity patterns.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Mammalogy
  • Phylogenetics

Background:

  • Most primates and mammals are either diurnal (active during the day) or nocturnal (active at night).
  • Cathemerality, an activity pattern of being active both diurnally and nocturnally, occurs infrequently across mammals and primates.
  • Understanding the evolutionary drivers of activity patterns is crucial for primate evolutionary history.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate macroevolutionary hypotheses explaining the rarity of cathemerality in mammals.
  • To test whether differential diversification (higher extinction) or differential state persistence (higher transition rates) explains the prevalence of activity patterns.

Main Methods:

  • Phylogenetic analysis of 3013 mammal species based on activity patterns.
  • Estimation of speciation, extinction, and transition rates between activity states using hidden-rates models.
  • Comparison of diversification dynamics across diurnal, nocturnal, and cathemeral lineages.

Main Results:

  • No consistent differences in diversification rates (speciation and extinction) were found among activity patterns.
  • Strong support for differential state persistence: transition rates out of cathemerality are significantly higher than out of nocturnality.
  • Diurnality shows unusual persistence in anthropoid primates and sciurid rodents due to low transition rates and high speciation.

Conclusions:

  • The distribution of mammalian activity patterns is primarily shaped by differential state persistence, not differential diversification.
  • High transition rates out of cathemerality explain its rarity compared to diurnality and nocturnality.
  • The persistence of diurnality in primates, not higher extinction of cathemeral primates, explains the low frequency of cathemerality in this clade.