Evaluating the drivers and engines of morphological diversification in the invasive gecko Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) (Squamata: Gekkonidae)

Abstract

Abstract Development determines the range of possible phenotypes that can be produced and exposed to selection and has a major role in the evolutionary trajectories of species. Nevertheless, development is itself subject to evolutionary forces. Here, we describe differences at the ontogenetic and population levels in head and limb proportions of the invasive gecko Hemidactylus mabouia, to assess the developmental mechanisms and extrinsic forces associated with morphological diversification during colonization of novel habitats. We have found that allometric trajectories of most skeletal traits remain constant throughout postnatal development. Linear morphometric analysis did not find multivariate differences between ontogenetic stages or sexes. When comparing populations, our results showed that the divergence of the corresponding external measures was explained by shifts in the intercept of static allometry curves, indicating that differences arose early in development. Populations aggregated into two morphological groups that did not correspond to the groups formed on the basis of genetic structure. Using two different approaches, we found support for an adaptive hypothesis when comparing observed patterns of morphological variation with that expected under neutral evolutionary models.