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Burress ED, Hart PB. Pelagic zone is an evolutionary catalyst, but an ecological dead end, for North American minnows. Evolution 2024; 78:1396-1404. [PMID: 38644756 DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpae062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Revised: 03/31/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
The colonization of a novel geographic area is a classic source of ecological opportunity. Likewise, complex microhabitats are thought to promote biodiversity. We sought to reconcile these two predictions when they are naturally opposing outcomes. We assess the macroevolutionary consequences of an ancestral shift from benthic to pelagic microhabitat zones on rates of speciation and phenotypic evolution in North American minnows. Pelagic species have more similar phenotypes and slower rates of phenotypic evolution, but faster speciation rates, than benthic species. These are likely two independent, opposing responses to specialization along the benthic-pelagic axis, as rates of phenotypic evolution and speciation are not directly correlated. The pelagic zone is more structurally homogenous and offers less ecological opportunity, acting as an ecological dead end for minnows. In contrast, pelagic species may be more mobile and prone to dispersal and subsequent geographic isolation and, consequently, experience elevated instances of allopatric speciation. Microhabitat shifts can have decoupled effects on different dimensions of biodiversity, highlighting the need for nuance when interpreting the macroevolutionary consequences of ecological opportunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward D Burress
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States
| | - Pamela B Hart
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States
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2
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Gayford JH. The genetics-morphology-behavior trifecta: Unraveling the single greatest limitation affecting our understanding of chondrichthyan evolution. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10204. [PMID: 37332516 PMCID: PMC10276327 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2023] [Revised: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Sharks, rays, and chimaera form the clade Chondrichthyes, an ancient group of morphologically and ecologically diverse vertebrates that has played an important role in our understanding of gnathostome evolution. Increasingly, studies seek to investigate evolutionary processes operating within the chondrichthyan crown group, with the broad aim of understanding the driving forces behind the vast phenotypic diversity observed among its constituent taxa. Genetic, morphological, and behavioral studies have all contributed to our understanding of phenotypic evolution yet are typically considered in isolation in the context of Chondrichthyes. In this viewpoint, I discuss why such isolation is prevalent in the literature, how it constrains our understanding of evolution, and how it might be overcome. I argue that integrating these core fields of organismal biology is vital if we are to understand the evolutionary processes operating in contemporary chondrichthyan taxa and how such processes have contributed to past phenotypic evolution. Despite this, the necessary tools to overcome this major limitation already exist and have been applied to other taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joel H. Gayford
- Department of Life SciencesImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Shark MeasurementsLondonUK
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López-Romero FA, Stumpf S, Kamminga P, Böhmer C, Pradel A, Brazeau MD, Kriwet J. Shark mandible evolution reveals patterns of trophic and habitat-mediated diversification. Commun Biol 2023; 6:496. [PMID: 37156994 PMCID: PMC10167336 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04882-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Environmental controls of species diversity represent a central research focus in evolutionary biology. In the marine realm, sharks are widely distributed, occupying mainly higher trophic levels and varied dietary preferences, mirrored by several morphological traits and behaviours. Recent comparative phylogenetic studies revealed that sharks present a fairly uneven diversification across habitats, from reefs to deep-water. We show preliminary evidence that morphological diversification (disparity) in the feeding system (mandibles) follows these patterns, and we tested hypotheses linking these patterns to morphological specialisation. We conducted a 3D geometric morphometric analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods on 145 specimens representing 90 extant shark species using computed tomography models. We explored how rates of morphological evolution in the jaw correlate with habitat, size, diet, trophic level, and taxonomic order. Our findings show a relationship between disparity and environment, with higher rates of morphological evolution in reef and deep-water habitats. Deep-water species display highly divergent morphologies compared to other sharks. Strikingly, evolutionary rates of jaw disparity are associated with diversification in deep water, but not in reefs. The environmental heterogeneity of the offshore water column exposes the importance of this parameter as a driver of diversification at least in the early part of clade history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faviel A López-Romero
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, Department of Palaeontology, Evolutionary Morphology Research Group, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1190, Vienna, Austria.
- University of Vienna, Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE), Djerassiplatz 1, 1030, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Sebastian Stumpf
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, Department of Palaeontology, Evolutionary Morphology Research Group, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1190, Vienna, Austria
| | - Pepijn Kamminga
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Christine Böhmer
- MECADEV UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, Département Adaptations du Vivant, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CP 55, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231, Paris, France
- Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften und GeoBio-Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Richard-Wagner-Straße 10, 80333, München, Germany
- Zoologisches Institut, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany
| | - Alan Pradel
- CR2P, Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle-Sorbonne Université-CNRS, CP 38, 57 rue Cuvier, F75231, Paris, Cedex 05, France
| | - Martin D Brazeau
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, SL5 7PY, London, UK
- The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
| | - Jürgen Kriwet
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, Department of Palaeontology, Evolutionary Morphology Research Group, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1190, Vienna, Austria
- University of Vienna, Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE), Djerassiplatz 1, 1030, Vienna, Austria
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Schultz ET, Boush LP. Introduction to "HaloDaSH: The deep and shallow history of aquatic life's passages between marine and freshwater habitats". Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:288-296. [PMID: 35687014 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Revised: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This series of papers highlights research into how biological exchanges between salty and freshwater habitats have transformed the biosphere. Life in the ocean and in freshwaters have long been intertwined; multiple major branches of the tree of life originated in the oceans and then adapted to and diversified in freshwaters. Similar exchanges continue to this day, including some species that continually migrate between marine and fresh waters. The series addresses key themes of transitions, transformations, and current threats with a series of questions: When did major colonizations of fresh waters happen? What physiographic changes facilitated transitions? What organismal characteristics facilitate colonization? Once a lineage has colonized freshwater, how frequently is there a return to the sea? Have transitions impelled diversification? How do organisms adapt physiologically to changes in halohabitat, and are such adaptive changes predictable? How do marine and freshwater taxa differ in morphology? How are present-day global changes in the environment influencing halohabitat and how are organisms contending with them? The purpose of the symposium and the papers in this volume is to integrate findings at multiple levels of biological organization and from disparate fields, across biological and geoscience disciplines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric T Schultz
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, U-3043, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT 06269-3043
| | - Lisa Park Boush
- Department of Geosciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT
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Buatois LA, Davies NS, Gibling MR, Krapovickas V, Labandeira CC, MacNaughton RB, Mángano MG, Minter NJ, Shillito AP. The Invasion of the Land in Deep Time: Integrating Paleozoic Records of Paleobiology, Ichnology, Sedimentology, and Geomorphology. Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:297-331. [PMID: 35640908 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The invasion of the land was a complex, protracted process, punctuated by mass extinctions, that involved multiple routes from marine environments. We integrate paleobiology, ichnology, sedimentology, and geomorphology to reconstruct Paleozoic terrestrialization. Cambrian landscapes were dominated by laterally mobile rivers with unstable banks in the absence of significant vegetation. Temporary incursions by arthropods and worm-like organisms into coastal environments apparently did not result in establishment of continental communities. Contemporaneous lacustrine faunas may have been inhibited by limited nutrient delivery and high sediment loads. The Ordovician appearance of early land plants triggered a shift in the primary locus of the global clay mineral factory, increasing the amount of mudrock on the continents. The Silurian-Devonian rise of vascular land plants, including the first forests and extensive root systems, was instrumental in further retaining fine sediment on alluvial plains. These innovations led to increased architectural complexity of braided and meandering rivers. Landscape changes were synchronous with establishment of freshwater and terrestrial arthropod faunas in overbank areas, abandoned fluvial channels, lake margins, ephemeral lakes, and inland deserts. Silurian-Devonian lakes experienced improved nutrient availability, due to increased phosphate weathering and terrestrial humic matter. All these changes favoured frequent invasions to permament establishment of jawless and jawed fishes in freshwater habitats and the subsequent tetrapod colonization of the land. The Carboniferous saw rapid diversification of tetrapods, mostly linked to aquatic reproduction, and land plants, including gymnosperms. Deeper root systems promoted further riverbank stabilization, contributing to the rise of anabranching rivers and braided systems with vegetated islands. New lineages of aquatic insects developed and expanded novel feeding modes, including herbivory. Late Paleozoic soils commonly contain pervasive root and millipede traces. Lacustrine animal communities diversified, accompanied by increased food-web complexity and improved food delivery which may have favored permanent colonization of offshore and deep-water lake environments. These trends continued in the Permian, but progressive aridification favored formation of hypersaline lakes, which were stressful for colonization. The Capitanian and end-Permian extinctions affected lacustrine and fluvial biotas, particularly the invertebrate infauna, although burrowing may have allowed some tetrapods to survive associated global warming and increased aridification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis A Buatois
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Neil S Davies
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EQ, UK
| | - Martin R Gibling
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Verónica Krapovickas
- Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA, Argentina
| | - Conrad C Labandeira
- Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA.,Department of Entomology and BEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 21740, USA.,College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
| | - Robert B MacNaughton
- Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), Natural Resources Canada, Calgary, Alberta T2L 2A7, Canada
| | - M Gabriela Mángano
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Nicholas J Minter
- School of the Environment, Geography, and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3QL, UK
| | - Anthony P Shillito
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK
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