https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06324-0
Published: 27 May 2024
Multidimensional primate niche space sheds
light on interspecific competition in
primate evolution
Abstract
Characterising how the totality of primate
diversity is distributed across the order,
and how it evolved, is challenging because
diversity in individual traits often show
opposing phylogenetic patterns. A species’
combination of traits can be conceptualised
as its ‘niche’. Here, we describe and analyse
seven-dimensional niche space, comprising
11 traits, for 191 primate species.
Multifaceted diversity is distributed
unequally among taxonomic groups.
Cercopithecoidea and Hominidae occupy the
largest areas of niche space, and are the
most diverse families; platyrrhine families
occupy small areas, and this space overlaps
with strepsirrhines. The evolution of
species’ locations in niche space is
regulated by selection for adaptive optima
in trait combinations. Given that niche
similarity results in interspecific
competition, we quantify two measures of
species’ niche locations relative to others.
We find that omnivores, frugivores, and
species tolerating higher temperatures
experience stronger interspecific
competition. Hominidae occupation of niche
space suggests competitive exclusion from
niches by Cercopithecoidea over evolutionary
time; but living great apes experience the
lowest levels of interspecific competition.
Callitrichids experience the highest levels
of interspecific competition. Our results
provide a standardised measure of primate
niches that sheds light on the partitioning
and evolution of primate diversity, and how
this is driven by interspecific competition.
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