Species co-existence and character divergence across carnivores

T. Jonathan Davies*, Shai Meiri, Timothy G. Barraclough, John L. Gittleman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

202 Scopus citations

Abstract

Co-occurring species might be morphologically similar because they are adapted to the same environment, or morphologically dissimilar to minimize competition. We use sister species comparisons to evaluate the relationship between morphological disparity and regional patterns of co-occurrence across carnivores. Up to 63% of the variation in range overlap can be explained by morphological divergence in dentition. Species that differ more in carnassial tooth length overlap more in their geographical range. Carnassials are the primary teeth associated with food processing, and hence difference in carnassial size may be a good indicator of difference in resource use. We suggest this pattern is consistent with competition in sympatry driving ecological character displacement, or competitive exclusion among ecologically similar species. Our study uses newly available data on global distributions, morphology and phylogeny, and is the first to demonstrate a close relationship between morphological disparity and co-occurrence at a regional scale encompassing multiple communities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)146-152
Number of pages7
JournalEcology Letters
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2007
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Natural Environment Research Councilcpb010001

    Keywords

    • Carnivores
    • Character displacement
    • Co-existence
    • Competition
    • Dentition
    • Ecological species sorting
    • Phylogeny

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