EVOLUTION IN THE UNDERGROUND - FUNCTIONAL AND ECOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN AMPHISBAENIA (REPTILIA: SQUAMATA)

• Grant number: 24/12123-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Tiana Kohlsdorf
• Grantee: Roberta Graboski Mendes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/14780-1 - Evo-Devo in dynamic environments: implications of climatic changes in the biodiversity, AP.TEM

Abstract

We are currently undergoing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis, and climate changes looms as one of the most significant extinction drivers. Climate-driven changes and ecological conditions in habitat distribution have been considered major catalysts of speciation. While environmental features (EFs; e.g., moisture, temperature, vegetation) are likely key factors driving diversity and phenotypic diversification of the morphology in many vertebrates, in fossorial organisms these factors are modulated by a burrowing lifestyle and may be also associated with other EFs (e.g., soil type) or with intrinsic biotic factors (e.g., biomechanics). In the context of specialization in the use of microhabitats under the surface (=underground environments), some questions are central: (Q1) How EFs affect distribution patterns of fossorial organisms? (Q2) Are EFs drivers of phenotypic diversification in fossorial lineages? If yes, Which EFs better explain patterns of phenotypic diversity? (Q3) If EFs do not explain phenotypic diversity patterns, do biomechanical constraints associated with soil penetration drive phenotypic diversification in fossorial organisms? (Q4) Are specific evolutionary novelties (biomechanical performance, EFs, and phenotypic diversity) driven by increased diversification rates? Or (Q5) Are diversification rates boosted after the origin of evolutionary novelties? This postdoctoral proposal aims to address these questions by evaluating the effects of biotic (biomechanics) and abiotic (EF's) factors on the evolution and diversification of vertebrates that colonized microhabitats under the surface. I aim to study a highly diverse group (203 valid species) of fossorial worm lizards, known as Amphisbaenia. By explicitly incorporating morphological diversity, biomechanics, and ecological variables, I will provide the most complete picture to date of how climate features, soil, vegetation, and biomechanics may affect diversification processes in this highly-diversified group of fossorial organisms.