Little evidence for enhanced phenotypic evolution in early teleosts relative to their living fossil sister group
Abstract
The success of teleost fishes, which represent roughly half of all vertebrate species, has attracted attention since Darwin. Numerous scenarios invoke elevated diversification in teleosts facilitated by supposed key innovations, yet claims of teleost exceptionalism are profoundly biased by the evolutionary "snapshot" of living fishes. Analysis of 160 million y (Permian-Early Cretaceous) of evolution in neopterygian fishes reveals that anatomical diversification in Mesozoic teleosts as a whole differed little from their "living fossil" holostean sister group. There is some evidence for evolutionary heterogeneity within teleosts, with early evolving lineages showing the greatest capacity for evolutionary innovation in body shape among Mesozoic neopterygians, whereas members of the modern teleost radiation show higher rates of shape evolution.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1607237113
- Bibcode:
- 2016PNAS..11311531C