Niche diversification follows key innovation in Antarctic fish radiation |
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Authors: | Ingram T Mahler D L |
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Institution: | Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA. ingram@fas.harvard.edu |
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Abstract: | Antarctic notothenioid fishes provide a fascinating evolutionary laboratory for the study of adaptive radiation, as their diversification is linked to both isolation in an extreme environment and a key innovation that allows them to exploit it. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Rutschmann et al. (2011) evaluate how dietary niche differences have evolved in notothenioids: rarely, or repeatedly in multiple lineages. The authors use stable isotopes to measure species’ use of benthic vs. pelagic resources and map resource use onto a molecular phylogeny. Their findings indicate that pelagic diets have evolved in multiple lineages in at least two families, indicating that dietary niche diversification has occurred repeatedly and in parallel. |
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Keywords: | community ecology fish macroevolution phylogenetic theory and methods |
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