Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Variation and process of life history evolution in insular dwarfism as revealed by a natural experiment

View ORCID ProfileShoji Hayashi, Mugino O. Kubo, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Hiroyuki Taruno, Masako Izawa, Tsunehiro Shiroma, View ORCID ProfileTakayoshi Nakano, Masaki Fujita
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.23.424186
Shoji Hayashi
1Faculty of Biosphere-Geosphere Science, Okayama University of Science, Kita-ku Ridaicho 1-1, Okayama, 700-0005, Japan
2Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Shoji Hayashi
  • For correspondence: hayashi@big.ous.ac.jp mugino@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Mugino O. Kubo
3Department of Natural Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: hayashi@big.ous.ac.jp mugino@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra
4Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Hiroyuki Taruno
5Osaka Museum of Natural History, Nagai Park 1-23, Higashi-Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, 546-0034, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Masako Izawa
6Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
7Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History, 2-4-1 Higashida, Yahatahigashi-ku, Kitakyushu 805-0071, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tsunehiro Shiroma
6Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Takayoshi Nakano
2Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Takayoshi Nakano
Masaki Fujita
8Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Background Islands offer a classic topic for evolutionary studies. Few other subjects have historically raised as much fascination as the island large mammals that having evolved into dwarfs. Consensus has been gained that multivariate ecological causes are behind those changes, but what remains largely unexplored are the processes involved. Recent studies focused on associated change of body size and life history (age of reproduction, growth rate, longevity) – a key to understand the process of insular dwarfism. The Japanese Archipelago offers worldwide a unique natural experiment, as in its numerous islands of different sizes the same group of organisms, deer, have evolved into different sizes. We investigated eight deer populations exhibiting body size variation, both extant and fossil, to clarify the effect of insularity on life history traits.

Results We applied several methods to both extant and extinct populations for resolving life history change among deer populations. Skeletochronology using lines of arrested growth successfully reconstructed body growth curves and revealed a gradual change in the growth trajectories reflecting degree of insularity: slower growth with prolonged growth periods in more isolated deer populations. An extensive examination of bone microstructure further corroborated it, and clearly indicated much slower growth and later somatic maturity in fossil insular deer, which had been isolated for more than 1.5 Myr. Finally, mortality patterns revealed by demographic analysis varied among deer populations and life history of insular populations shifted toward “slow-life” of K-strategists.

Conclusion We clarified the evolutionary and ecological process behind insular dwarfism, which occurred in conjunction with life history shifts. The process initiated with phenotypic plasticity responding to the resource-limitation on predator-free islands after the settlements of islanders. Under the insular environments, natural selection favored K-selected animals and the life history traits were genetically fixed. Extreme K-strategy found in fossil dwarfs on islands would make them vulnerable to anthropogenic changes, that would explain termination of insular dwarfs after human arrival on islands.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
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 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted September 04, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Variation and process of life history evolution in insular dwarfism as revealed by a natural experiment
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Variation and process of life history evolution in insular dwarfism as revealed by a natural experiment
Shoji Hayashi, Mugino O. Kubo, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Hiroyuki Taruno, Masako Izawa, Tsunehiro Shiroma, Takayoshi Nakano, Masaki Fujita
bioRxiv 2020.12.23.424186; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.23.424186
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Variation and process of life history evolution in insular dwarfism as revealed by a natural experiment
Shoji Hayashi, Mugino O. Kubo, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Hiroyuki Taruno, Masako Izawa, Tsunehiro Shiroma, Takayoshi Nakano, Masaki Fujita
bioRxiv 2020.12.23.424186; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.23.424186

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4237)
  • Biochemistry (9155)
  • Bioengineering (6797)
  • Bioinformatics (24052)
  • Biophysics (12149)
  • Cancer Biology (9562)
  • Cell Biology (13814)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7653)
  • Ecology (11729)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15534)
  • Genetics (10663)
  • Genomics (14346)
  • Immunology (9502)
  • Microbiology (22876)
  • Molecular Biology (9113)
  • Neuroscience (49080)
  • Paleontology (357)
  • Pathology (1487)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2576)
  • Physiology (3851)
  • Plant Biology (8347)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1473)
  • Synthetic Biology (2299)
  • Systems Biology (6202)
  • Zoology (1302)