Dataset Information

Spiders did not repeatedly gain, but repeatedly lost, foraging webs.

ABSTRACT: Much genomic-scale, especially transcriptomic, data on spider phylogeny has accumulated in the last few years. These data have recently been used to investigate the diverse architectures and the origin of spider webs, concluding that the ancestral spider spun no foraging web, that spider webs evolved de novo 10-14 times, and that the orb web evolved at least three times. These findings in fact result from a particular phylogenetic character coding strategy, specifically coding the absence of webs as logically equivalent, and homologous to, 10 other observable (i.e., not absent) web architectures. "Absence" of webs should be regarded as inapplicable data. To be analyzed properly by character optimization algorithms, it should be coded as "?" because these codes-or their equivalent-are handled differently by such algorithms. Additional problems include critical misspellings of taxon names from one analysis to the next (misspellings cause some optimization algorithms to drop terminals, which affects taxon sampling and results), and mistakes in spider natural history. In sum, the method causes character optimization algorithms to produce counter-intuitive results, and does not distinguish absence from secondary loss. Proper treatment of missing entries and corrected data instead imply that foraging webs are primitive for spiders and that webs have been lost ?5-7 times, not gained 10-14 times. The orb web, specifically, may be homologous (originated only once) although lost 2-6 times.

SUBMITTER: Coddington JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6451839 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Spiders did not repeatedly gain, but repeatedly lost, foraging webs.

Coddington Jonathan A JA Agnarsson Ingi I Hamilton Chris A CA Bond Jason E JE

PeerJ 20190404

Much genomic-scale, especially transcriptomic, data on spider phylogeny has accumulated in the last few years. These data have recently been used to investigate the diverse architectures and the origin of spider webs, concluding that the ancestral spider spun no foraging web, that spider webs evolved <i>de novo</i> 10-14 times, and that the orb web evolved at least three times. These findings in fact result from a particular phylogenetic character coding strategy, specifically coding the <i>abse ...[more]

PMID: 30976470

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Project description:Deforestation is rapidly transforming primary forests across the tropics into human-dominated landscapes. Consequently, conservationists need to understand how different taxa respond and adapt to these changes in order to develop appropriate management strategies. Our two year study seeks to determine how wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) adapt to living in an isolated agroforest landscape by investigating the sex of crop-raiders related to population demographics, and their temporal variations in feeding behaviour and dietary composition. From focal animal sampling we found that nine identified females raided cultivated fruits more than the four males. Seasonal adaptations were shown through orangutan feeding habits that shifted from being predominantly fruit-based (56% of the total feeding time, then 22% on bark) to the fallback food of bark (44%, then 35% on fruits), when key cultivated resources such as jackfruit (Artocarpus integer), were unavailable. Cultivated fruits were mostly consumed in the afternoon and evening, when farmers had returned home. The finding that females take greater crop-raiding risks than males differs from previous human-primate conflict studies, probably because of the low risks associated (as farmers rarely retaliated) and low intraspecific competition between males. Thus, the behavioral ecology of orangutans living in this human-dominated landscape differs markedly from that in primary forest, where orangutans have a strictly wild food diet, even where primary rainforests directly borders farmland. The importance of wild food availability was clearly illustrated in this study with 21% of the total orangutan feeding time being allocated to feeding on cultivated fruits. As forests are increasingly converted to cultivation, humans and orangutans are predicted to come into conflict more frequently. This study reveals orangutan adaptations for coexisting with humans, e.g. changes in temporal foraging patterns, which should be used for guiding the development of specific human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies to lessen future crop-raiding and conflicts.

Dataset Information

Spiders did not repeatedly gain, but repeatedly lost, foraging webs.

Publications

Spiders did not repeatedly gain, but repeatedly lost, foraging webs.

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