Sexual selection plays a key role in the diversification of numerous animal clades and may accelerate trait divergence during speciation. However, much of our understanding of this process comes from phylogenetic comparative studies, which rely on surrogate measures such as dimorphism that may not represent selection in wild populations. In this study, we assess sexual selection pressures for multiple male visual signals across four barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) populations. Our sample encompassed 2400 linear km and two described subspecies: European H. r. rustica (in the Czech Republic and Romania) and eastern Mediterranean H. r. transitiva (in Israel), as well as a potential area of contact (in Turkey). We demonstrate significant phenotypic differentiation in four sexual signalling axes, despite very low-level genomic divergence and no comparable divergence in an ecological trait. Moreover, the direction of phenotypic divergence is consistent with differences in sexual selection pressures among subspecies. Thus, H. r. transitiva, which have the darkest ventral plumage of any population, experience directional selection for darker plumage. Similarly, H. r. rustica, which have the longest tail feathers of any population, experience directional selection for elongated tail feathers and disruptive selection for ventral plumage saturation. These results suggest that sexual selection is the primary driver of phenotypic differentiation in this species. Our findings add to growing evidence of phenotypic divergence with gene flow. However, to our knowledge, this is the first study to relate direct measures of the strength and targets of sexual selection to phenotypic divergence among closely related wild populations.

Department of Animal Sciences Hula Research Center Tel Hai College Tel Hai Israel

Department of Biology Faculty of Science Akdeniz University Antalya Turkey

Department of Biology University of Nevada Reno NV USA

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Colorado Boulder CO USA

Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management Faculty of Forestry Düzce University Düzce Turkey

Department of Zoology and Ecology Charles University Prague Prague Czech Republic

Department of Zoology Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel

Elementary Science Education Department Education Faculty Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University Alanya Turkey

Evolutionary Ecology Group Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology Babeş Bolyai University Cluj Napoca Romania

Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

School of Biological Sciences University of Nebraska Lincoln Lincoln NE USA

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

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Dryad
10.5061/dryad.8br54