Patterns of caudal‐autotomy evolution in lizards

Using comparative techniques to account for phylogenetic effects, I examined patterns of evolution of caudal autotomy and foraging in 39 lizard species to test the hypothesis that caudal autotomy has co‐evolved with morphology, locomotor performance, and foraging behaviour. There were significant positive associations between evolution of the point on the tail (distance from cloaca) at which tail loss occurs (an indirect measure of caudal autotomy) and evolution of each of the following: tail length, caudifemoralis longus (CFL) muscle length, and jump distance. The correlation with the evolution of sprint speed approached significance. These relationships primarily were due to the influence of tail‐length evolution on autotomy‐point evolution. With the effect of tail‐length evolution removed, autotomy‐point evolution was negatively correlated with the evolution of tail‐loss frequency. The CFL restricts tail loss to portions of the tail posterior to the most distal point of its insertion in the tail. In addition, with the effect of tail‐length evolution removed, CFL length co‐evolved with sprint speed. These results indicate that tail morphology has co‐evolved with caudal autotomy such that the evolution of the CFL has reduced caudal autotomy in certain groups of lizards. Ambush foraging, the ability to lose the tail, intermediate CFL length, and low locomotor performance (i.e. slow sprint speed and short jump distance) are hypothesized to be the ancestral conditions in lizards using outgroup rooting. The diversification of lizard taxa has resulted in some lineages moving away from ancestral character states (i.e. family Teiidae, superfamily Varanoidea), while others are very similar or identical to their ancestors (i.e. superfamily Iguania).