Meeting Abstract
Organisms possess suites of traits that aid them in carrying out ecologically-relevant tasks for their survival. The relationships between phenotypic traits and tasks are typically very complex where many different phenotypic traits often interact to carry out a variety of performances, a concept known as many-to-many mapping. By quantifying the complex form-function relationships between many traits and many tasks, we are able to better understand how this contributes to varying levels of functional constraint within a suite of traits. However, in previous form and function relationship work, only two measures of performance have been considered at a time. Here we look at four different modes of locomotion: bipedal running, jumping, swimming, and climbing in brown basilisk lizards, Basiliscus vittatus. By considering greater numbers of performance measures, we are able to examine how trade-offs, facilitations, and one-to-one relationships can constrain a given phenotypic trait simultaneously. To do this, we utilize the F-matrix, a statistical model used to compare multiple phenotypic traits to multiple performance measures. The F-matrix approach also allows us to quantify the degree to which trade-offs and facilitations appear in a system and predict which traits are most functionally constrained and, therefore, are least evolvable. We find that increasing the number of performance measures can either decrease or increase the level of functional constraint and overall evolvablity within the functional system.
