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Temporal niche expansion in mammals from a nocturnal ancestor after dinosaur extinction

Roi Maor, Tamar Dayan, Henry Ferguson-Gow, Kate E. Jones
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/123273
Roi Maor
1School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel.
2Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
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Tamar Dayan
1School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel.
3The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
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Henry Ferguson-Gow
2Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
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Kate E. Jones
2Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
4Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom.
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Abstract

Most modern mammals, including strictly diurnal species, exhibit sensory adaptations to nocturnal activity, thought to be the result of a prolonged nocturnal phase or ‘bottleneck’ during early mammalian evolution. Nocturnality may have allowed mammals to avoid antagonistic interactions with diurnal dinosaurs during the Mesozoic. However, understanding the evolution of mammalian activity patterns is hindered by scant and ambiguous fossil evidence. While ancestral reconstructions of behavioural traits from extant species have the potential to elucidate these patterns, existing studies have been limited in taxonomic scope. Here, we use an extensive behavioural dataset for 2415 species from all extant orders to reconstruct ancestral activity patterns across Mammalia. We find strong support for the nocturnal origin of mammals and the Cenozoic appearance of diurnality, although cathemerality (mixed diel periodicity) may have appeared in the late Cretaceous. Simian primates are among the earliest mammals to exhibit strict diurnal activity, some 52-33Mya. Our study is consistent with the hypothesis that temporal partitioning between early mammals and dinosaurs during the Mesozoic led to a mammalian nocturnal bottleneck, but also demonstrates the need for improved phylogenetic estimates for Mammalia.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 02, 2017.
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Temporal niche expansion in mammals from a nocturnal ancestor after dinosaur extinction
Roi Maor, Tamar Dayan, Henry Ferguson-Gow, Kate E. Jones
bioRxiv 123273; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/123273
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Temporal niche expansion in mammals from a nocturnal ancestor after dinosaur extinction
Roi Maor, Tamar Dayan, Henry Ferguson-Gow, Kate E. Jones
bioRxiv 123273; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/123273

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