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Brownstein CD, Zapfe KL, Lott S, Harrington R, Ghezelayagh A, Dornburg A, Near TJ. Synergistic innovations enabled the radiation of anglerfishes in the deep open ocean. Curr Biol 2024; 34:2541-2550.e4. [PMID: 38788708 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.066] [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: 01/09/2024] [Revised: 03/10/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Major ecological transitions are thought to fuel diversification, but whether they are contingent on the evolution of certain traits called key innovations1 is unclear. Key innovations are routinely invoked to explain how lineages rapidly exploit new ecological opportunities.1,2,3 However, investigations of key innovations often focus on single traits rather than considering trait combinations that collectively produce effects of interest.4 Here, we investigate the evolution of synergistic trait interactions in anglerfishes, which include one of the most species-rich vertebrate clades in the bathypelagic, or "midnight," zone of the deep sea: Ceratioidea.5 Ceratioids are the only vertebrates that possess sexual parasitism, wherein males temporarily attach or permanently fuse to females to mate.6,7 We show that the rapid transition of ancestrally benthic anglerfishes into pelagic habitats occurred during a period of major global warming 50-35 million years ago.8,9 This transition coincided with the origins of sexual parasitism, which is thought to increase the probability of successful reproduction once a mate is found in the midnight zone, Earth's largest habitat.5,6,7 Our reconstruction of the evolutionary history of anglerfishes and the loss of immune genes support that permanently fusing clades have convergently degenerated their adaptive immunity. We find that degenerate adaptive immune genes and sexual body size dimorphism, both variably present in anglerfishes outside the ceratioid radiation, likely promoted their transition into the bathypelagic zone. These results show how traits from separate physiological, morphological, and reproductive systems can interact synergistically to drive major transitions and subsequent diversification in novel environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chase D Brownstein
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
| | - Katerina L Zapfe
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina Charlotte, 9331 Robert D. Snyder Rd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA
| | - Spencer Lott
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Richard Harrington
- Department of Natural Resources, Marine Resources Division, 217 Ft. Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412-9110, USA
| | - Ava Ghezelayagh
- Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Alex Dornburg
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina Charlotte, 9331 Robert D. Snyder Rd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA
| | - Thomas J Near
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Peabody Museum, Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
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Finnegan S, Harnik PG, Lockwood R, Lotze HK, McClenachan L, Kahanamoku SS. Using the Fossil Record to Understand Extinction Risk and Inform Marine Conservation in a Changing World. ANNUAL REVIEW OF MARINE SCIENCE 2024; 16:307-333. [PMID: 37683272 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-marine-021723-095235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/10/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the long-term effects of ongoing global environmental change on marine ecosystems requires a cross-disciplinary approach. Deep-time and recent fossil records can contribute by identifying traits and environmental conditions associated with elevated extinction risk during analogous events in the geologic past and by providing baseline data that can be used to assess historical change and set management and restoration targets and benchmarks. Here, we review the ecological and environmental information available in the marine fossil record and discuss how these archives can be used to inform current extinction risk assessments as well as marine conservation strategies and decision-making at global to local scales. As we consider future research directions in deep-time and conservationpaleobiology, we emphasize the need for coproduced research that unites researchers, conservation practitioners, and policymakers with the communities for whom the impacts of climate and global change are most imminent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seth Finnegan
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA; ,
| | - Paul G Harnik
- Department of Earth and Environmental Geosciences, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA;
| | - Rowan Lockwood
- Department of Geology, William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA;
| | - Heike K Lotze
- Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;
| | - Loren McClenachan
- Department of History and School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;
| | - Sara S Kahanamoku
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA; ,
- Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
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Marshall DJ, McQuaid CD. Metabolic Regulation, Oxygen Limitation and Heat Tolerance in a Subtidal Marine Gastropod Reveal the Complexity of Predicting Climate Change Vulnerability. Front Physiol 2020; 11:1106. [PMID: 33101046 PMCID: PMC7556210 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.01106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Predictions for climate vulnerability of ectotherms have focused on performance-enhancing physiology, even though an organism’s energetic state can also be balanced by lowering resting maintenance costs. Adaptive metabolic depression (hypometabolism) enables animals to endure food scarcity, and physically extreme and variable environmental conditions. Hypometabolism is common in terrestrial and intertidal marine gastropod species, though this physiology and tolerance of environmental change are poorly understood in subtidal benthic gastropods. We investigated oxygen limitation tolerance, hypometabolism and thermal performance in the subtidal, tropical snail Turritella bacillum. Survival, cardiac activity and oxygen debt repayment were determined when oxygen uptake was limited by gill function impairment (air exposure) or exposure to hypoxic seawater. Thermal performance and tolerance were assessed from survival and cardiac performance when heated. The ability of snails to regulate metabolism during oxygen limitation was demonstrated by their tolerance of air exposure (>36 h) and hypoxia (>16 h), rhythmicity and reversibility of bradycardia, and inconsistent anaerobic compensation. Under acute heating, mean heart rate was temperature-insensitive in water and temperature-dependent in air. Converging or peaking of individual heart rates during heating suggest maximization of thermal performance at 38–39°C, whereas survival and heartbeat flatlining suggest an upper thermal limit exceeding 42°C. Snails survived 16 h in seawater at 38°C. Their metabolic regulation complies with the oxygen-limiting, sediment-burrowing lifestyle of the species. Although a tropical organism, the species’ thermal tolerance so far exceeds present habitat temperatures as to question its susceptibility to centennial climate warming. Our findings reveal the importance of knowing the metabolic regulatory capabilities and conserved physiological attributes of species used in climate vulnerability tests. Studies of ectotherm climate vulnerability that identify generalized trends based on physiologically similar animals may be misleading by missing information on physiological diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Marshall
- Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
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Foster WJ, Garvie CL, Weiss AM, Muscente AD, Aberhan M, Counts JW, Martindale RC. Resilience of marine invertebrate communities during the early Cenozoic hyperthermals. Sci Rep 2020; 10:2176. [PMID: 32034228 PMCID: PMC7005832 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58986-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2019] [Accepted: 01/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The hyperthermal events of the Cenozoic, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, provide an opportunity to investigate the potential effects of climate warming on marine ecosystems. Here, we examine the shallow benthic marine communities preserved in the late Cretaceous to Eocene strata on the Gulf Coastal Plain (United States). In stark contrast to the ecological shifts following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, our data show that the early Cenozoic hyperthermals did not have a long-term impact on the generic diversity nor composition of the Gulf Coastal Plain molluscan communities. We propose that these communities were resilient to climate change because molluscs are better adapted to high temperatures than other taxa, as demonstrated by their physiology and evolutionary history. In terms of resilience, these communities differ from other shallow-water carbonate ecosystems, such as reef communities, which record significant changes during the early Cenozoic hyperthermals. These data highlight the strikingly different responses of community types, i.e., the almost imperceptible response of molluscs versus the marked turnover of foraminifera and reef faunas. The impact on molluscan communities may have been low because detrimental conditions did not devastate the entire Gulf Coastal Plain, allowing molluscs to rapidly recolonise vacated areas once harsh environmental conditions ameliorated.
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Affiliation(s)
- William J Foster
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany. .,University of Potsdam, Institute for Geosciences, Karl-Liebknecht Straße 24-25, Potsdam-Golm, 14476, Germany. .,University College Dublin, School of Earth Sciences, Belfield, Dublin, 4, Ireland.
| | - Christopher L Garvie
- Non-Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, Texas Natural Science Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Road, Austin, Texas, 78758, USA
| | - Anna M Weiss
- The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences, 2275 Speedway, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA
| | - A D Muscente
- The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences, 2275 Speedway, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA.,Cornell College, Department of Geology, Mount Vernon, Iowa, 600 First Street SW, 52314, USA
| | - Martin Aberhan
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany
| | - John W Counts
- University College Dublin, School of Earth Sciences, Belfield, Dublin, 4, Ireland
| | - Rowan C Martindale
- The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences, 2275 Speedway, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA
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