December
17, 2018, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Reef fish
species at the extremes of the food chain—those that are strict herbivores or
strict fish predators—evolve faster than fish species in the middle of the food
chain with a more varied diet, according to a new study published
in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The
paper, co-authored by Samuel Borstein, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, could challenge the way scientists think about
evolution in relation to the position a species
holds on the food
chain.
Up until
now, scientists thought that species that eat a wide variety of different foods
might evolve quicker and show more variations in morphology—physical aspects
such as size, shape, and color.
However,
Borstein and his team were able to prove the exact opposite: species with the
most limited diet are evolving faster.
For the
study, the researchers produced an evolutionary "family tree" that
describes the relationships of more than 1,500 coral reef species, their place
in the food chain, and the diversity
of items on which they feed.
They also
digitized hundreds of photographs of reef fish to gather information on
physical traits that are important for feeding, such as the depth of the
peduncle (the part of the fish where body and fins attach).
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