Opposite macroevolutionary responses to environmental changes in grasses and insects during the Neogene grassland expansion

Gael J. Kergoat (), Fabien L. Condamine, Emmanuel F. A. Toussaint, Claire Capdevielle-Dulac, Anne-Laure Clamens, Jérôme Barbut, Paul Z. Goldstein and Bruno Le Ru
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Gael J. Kergoat: University of Montpellier
Fabien L. Condamine: Place Eugène Bataillon
Emmanuel F. A. Toussaint: University of Florida
Claire Capdevielle-Dulac: CNRS-IRD-Univ. Paris-Sud, IDEEV, Université Paris-Saclay
Anne-Laure Clamens: University of Montpellier
Jérôme Barbut: MNHN, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Entomologie)
Paul Z. Goldstein: National Museum of Natural History
Bruno Le Ru: CNRS-IRD-Univ. Paris-Sud, IDEEV, Université Paris-Saclay

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The rise of Neogene C4 grasslands is one of the most drastic changes recently experienced by the biosphere. A central - and widely debated - hypothesis posits that Neogene grasslands acted as a major adaptive zone for herbivore lineages. We test this hypothesis with a novel model system, the Sesamiina stemborer moths and their associated host-grasses. Using a comparative phylogenetic framework integrating paleoenvironmental proxies we recover a negative correlation between the evolutionary trajectories of insects and plants. Our results show that paleoenvironmental changes generated opposing macroevolutionary dynamics in this insect-plant system and call into question the role of grasslands as a universal adaptive cradle. This study illustrates the importance of implementing environmental proxies in diversification analyses to disentangle the relative impacts of biotic and abiotic drivers of macroevolutionary dynamics.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07537-8

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