Prolonged morphological expansion of spiny-rayed fishes following the end-Cretaceous
Ghezelayagh, A.; Harrington, R.C.; Burress, E.D.; Campbell, M.A.; Buckner, J.C.; Chakrabarty, P.; Glass, J.R.; McCraney, W.T.; Unmack, P.J.; Thacker, C.E.; Alfaro, M.E.; Friedman, S.T.; Ludt, W.B.; Cowman, P.F.; Friedman, M.; Price, S.A.; Dornburg, A.; Faircloth, B.C.; Wainwright, P.C.; Near, T.J. (2022). Prolonged morphological expansion of spiny-rayed fishes following the end-Cretaceous. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6(8): 1211-1220. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01801-3
In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. Springer Nature. ISSN 2397-334X, more
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| Authors | | Top |
- Ghezelayagh, A.
- Harrington, R.C.
- Burress, E.D.
- Campbell, M.A.
- Buckner, J.C.
- Chakrabarty, P.
- Glass, J.R.
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- McCraney, W.T.
- Unmack, P.J.
- Thacker, C.E.
- Alfaro, M.E.
- Friedman, S.T.
- Ludt, W.B.
- Cowman, P.F.
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- Friedman, M.
- Price, S.A.
- Dornburg, A.
- Faircloth, B.C.
- Wainwright, P.C.
- Near, T.J.
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| Abstract |
Spiny-rayed fishes (Acanthomorpha) dominate modern marine habitats and account for more than a quarter of all living vertebrate species. Previous time-calibrated phylogenies and patterns from the fossil record explain this dominance by correlating the origin of major acanthomorph lineages with the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction. Here we infer a time-calibrated phylogeny using ultraconserved elements that samples 91.4% of all acanthomorph families and investigate patterns of body shape disparity. Our results show that acanthomorph lineages steadily accumulated throughout the Cenozoic and underwent a significant expansion of among-clade morphological disparity several million years after the end-Cretaceous. These acanthomorph lineages radiated into and diversified within distinct regions of morphospace that characterize iconic lineages, including fast-swimming open-ocean predators, laterally compressed reef fishes, bottom-dwelling flatfishes, seahorses and pufferfishes. The evolutionary success of spiny-rayed fishes is the culmination of multiple species-rich and phenotypically disparate lineages independently diversifying across the globe under a wide range of ecological conditions. |
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