Meeting Abstract
The integrity of regional and local biological diversity is under siege as a result of an multiple anthropogenic threats. The conversion of habitats, such as rain forests, into agricultural ecosystems reduces the area available to support species populations. In addition, fragmentation of the remaining habitats may render the environments unsuitable for survival or reproduction of species. Rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns lead to additional challenges for species. The ability of conservation biologists to ascertain the threats to a species requires data on changes in distribution, abundance, life history and ecology. The IUCN uses these data to assess the a risk status for species. However, to date only 105,700 species have been assessed. Many species remain data deficient or yet to be assessed. In this study I ask whether a readily available database can be used to predict a species risk status. Morphological traits are an ideal proxy for making inferences about a species ecology. Past studies have shown that morphology can predict habitat use, foraging behavior and physiological performance among species. Here, I tested whether the patterns of covariation in 15 morphological traits can predict the risk status of over 400 species of lizards in the infraorder Iguania. I summarized the patterns of covariation using a Principal components analysis. Results from a phylogenetic ANOVA revealed that Vulnerable, Threatened, and Endangered species were larger, differed in body width and leg length as well as jaw length. A classification analysis confirmed the trends obtained with the PCA scores. I used the classification function to make predictions for species that had not yet been assessed by the IUCN species specialists groups. Because of the functional link between morphology, performance, and ecology, an ecomorphological approach may be a useful tool for rapid assessment of data deficient species.
