title: Distinctive convergence in Australian floral colours seen through the eyes of Australian birds.
abstract: We used a colour-space model of avian vision to assess whether a distinctive bird pollination syndrome exists for floral colour among Australian angiosperms. We also used a novel phylogenetically based method to assess whether such a syndrome represents a significant degree of convergent evolution. About half of the 80 species in our sample that attract nectarivorous birds had floral colours in a small, isolated region of colour space characterized by an emphasis on long-wavelength reflection. The distinctiveness of this 'red arm' region was much greater when colours were modelled for violet-sensitive (VS) avian vision than for the ultraviolet-sensitive visual system. Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) are the dominant avian nectarivores in Australia and have VS vision. Ancestral state reconstructions suggest that 31 lineages evolved into the red arm region, whereas simulations indicate that an average of five or six lineages and a maximum of 22 are likely to have entered in the absence of selection. Thus, significant evolutionary convergence on a distinctive floral colour syndrome for bird pollination has occurred in Australia, although only a subset of bird-pollinated taxa belongs to this syndrome. The visual system of honeyeaters has been the apparent driver of this convergence.
authors.affiliation: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, , Durham, NC 27705, USA, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, , Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, , Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia, Department of Physiology, Monash University, , Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia, Department of Biology, Bucknell University, , Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, , Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burd
authors.forename: C Tristan
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Stayton
authors.forename: Mani
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shrestha
authors.forename: Adrian G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Dyer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003116:Color; D055253:Color Vision / Q000502:physiology*; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000502:physiology*; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: colour vision; convergent evolution; pollination syndrome