Character displacement of Cercopithecini primate visual signals

William L. Allen; Martin Stevens; James P. Higham

doi:10.1038/ncomms5266

Character displacement of Cercopithecini primate visual signals

William L. Allen, Martin Stevens, James P. Higham

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Animal visual signals have the potential to act as an isolating barrier to prevent interbreeding of populations through a role in species recognition. Within communities of competing species, species recognition signals are predicted to undergo character displacement, becoming more visually distinctive from each other; however, this pattern has rarely been identified. Using computational face recognition algorithms to model primate face processing, we demonstrate that the face patterns of guenons (tribe: Cercopithecini) have evolved under selection to become more visually distinctive from those of other guenon species with whom they are sympatric. The relationship between the appearances of sympatric species suggests that distinguishing conspecifics from other guenon species has been a major driver of diversification in guenon face appearance. Visual signals that have undergone character displacement may have had an important role in the tribea' s radiation, keeping populations that became geographically separated reproductively isolated on secondary contact.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	4266
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5266
State	Published - Jun 26 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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Cite this

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title = "Character displacement of Cercopithecini primate visual signals",

abstract = "Animal visual signals have the potential to act as an isolating barrier to prevent interbreeding of populations through a role in species recognition. Within communities of competing species, species recognition signals are predicted to undergo character displacement, becoming more visually distinctive from each other; however, this pattern has rarely been identified. Using computational face recognition algorithms to model primate face processing, we demonstrate that the face patterns of guenons (tribe: Cercopithecini) have evolved under selection to become more visually distinctive from those of other guenon species with whom they are sympatric. The relationship between the appearances of sympatric species suggests that distinguishing conspecifics from other guenon species has been a major driver of diversification in guenon face appearance. Visual signals that have undergone character displacement may have had an important role in the tribea' s radiation, keeping populations that became geographically separated reproductively isolated on secondary contact.",

author = "Allen, {William L.} and Martin Stevens and Higham, {James P.}",

note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank Audubon Zoo, Bronx Zoo, CERCOPAN Nigeria, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo, Erie Zoo, Fort Wayne Children{\textquoteright}s Zoo, Gulf Breeze Zoo, Houston Zoo, Jackson Zoological Park, Louisiana Purchase Zoo, Little Rock Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, Oakland Zoo, Paignton Zoo, Pittsbrgh Zoo, Potawatomi Zoo, San Diego Zoo, Twycross Zoo and Zoo of Acadiana for their support with data collection. We are grateful to Michael Martin and Tamra Mendelson, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. The work was funded by intramural funds from New York University to J.P.H., and a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship (BB/G022887/1) to M.S. For training in phylogenetic comparative methods, JH thanks the AnthroTree Workshop, which is supported by the NSF (BCS-0923791) and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NSF grant EF-0905606).",

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N2 - Animal visual signals have the potential to act as an isolating barrier to prevent interbreeding of populations through a role in species recognition. Within communities of competing species, species recognition signals are predicted to undergo character displacement, becoming more visually distinctive from each other; however, this pattern has rarely been identified. Using computational face recognition algorithms to model primate face processing, we demonstrate that the face patterns of guenons (tribe: Cercopithecini) have evolved under selection to become more visually distinctive from those of other guenon species with whom they are sympatric. The relationship between the appearances of sympatric species suggests that distinguishing conspecifics from other guenon species has been a major driver of diversification in guenon face appearance. Visual signals that have undergone character displacement may have had an important role in the tribea' s radiation, keeping populations that became geographically separated reproductively isolated on secondary contact.

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Character displacement of Cercopithecini primate visual signals

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