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Colonisation of toxic environments drives predictable life‐history evolution in livebearing fishes (Poeciliidae)
Authors:Rüdiger Riesch  Martin Plath  Ingo Schlupp  Michael Tobler  R Brian Langerhans
Institution:1. Department of Biological Sciences & W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, , Raleigh, NC, 27695‐7617 USA;2. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, , Sheffield, S10 2TN UK;3. Evolutionary Ecology Group, J. W. Goethe‐University Frankfurt/M., , 60438 Frankfurt a. M., Germany;4. Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, , Norman, OK, 73019 USA;5. Department of Zoology, Oklahoma State University, , Stillwater, OK, 74078 USA
Abstract:New World livebearing fishes (family Poeciliidae) have repeatedly colonised toxic, hydrogen sulphide‐rich waters across their natural distribution. Physiological considerations and life‐history theory predict that these adverse conditions should favour the evolution of larger offspring. Here, we examined nine poeciliid species that independently colonised toxic environments, and show that these fishes have indeed repeatedly evolved much larger offspring size at birth in sulphidic waters, thus uncovering a widespread pattern of predictable evolution. However, a second pattern, only indirectly predicted by theory, proved additionally common: a reduction in the number of offspring carried per clutch (i.e. lower fecundity). Our analyses reveal that this secondary pattern represents a mere consequence of a classic life‐history trade‐off combined with strong selection on offspring size alone. With such strong natural selection in extreme environments, extremophile organisms may commonly exhibit multivariate phenotypic shifts even though not all diverging traits necessarily represent adaptations to the extreme conditions.
Keywords:Divergent natural selection  ecological speciation  extreme environments     Gambusia     life‐history evolution  phenotypic convergence     Poecilia     replicated evolution
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