Adaptation, Versatility, and Evolution

Vermeij, Geerat J.

doi:10.2307/2412953

Cited by 157 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

127

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A number of evolutionary innovations are thought to weaken functional integration among structures. These include the emergence of redundant function in non-overlapping sets of structures 15,16 , structural duplication [17][18][19][20] , mechanical decoupling 18,19,21 and, similar to what we describe here, behavioural transition (also referred to as functional transition), which is a shift in one or more of the functions executed to meet a biological demand. Each of these innovations can break up ancestral functional relationships among structures and permit new trait combinations to arise without disrupting the ability to meet a biological demand.…”

mentioning

confidence: 67%

Biting disrupts integration to spur skull evolution in eels

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The demand that anatomical structures work together to perform biological functions is thought to impose strong limits on morphological evolution. Breakthroughs in diversification can occur, however, when functional integration among structures is relaxed. Although such transitions are expected to generate variation in morphological diversification across the tree of life, empirical tests of this hypothesis are rare. Here we show that transitions between suction-based and biting modes of prey capture, which require different degrees of coordination among skull components, are associated with shifts in the pattern of skull diversification in eels (Anguilliformes). Biting eels have experienced greater independence of the jaws, hyoid and operculum during evolution and exhibit more varied morphologies than closely related suction feeders, and this pattern reflects the weakened functional integration among skull components required for biting. Our results suggest that behavioural transitions can change the evolutionary potential of the vertebrate skeleton by altering functional relationships among structures.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 67%

Biting disrupts integration to spur skull evolution in eels

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrasting these two models, the Red Queen allows for adaptive advantage and a feeding up of the day-to-day actions and consequences of evolution within populations to longer time scales-a broadly adapted or versatile (Vermeij 1973) group, perhaps with a high reproductive rate, is more likely to survive and flourish in the long term than a group of species with narrow habitat tolerances or narrow dietary requirements. The Court Jester allows none of this, and organisms that flourish during normal times might suffer as much as others when the crisis hits.…”

Section: The Determinants Of Terrestrial Tetrapod Biodiversity (A) Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

The origins of modern biodiversity on land

Benton

2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

140

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Comparative studies of large phylogenies of living and extinct groups have shown that most biodiversity arises from a small number of highly species-rich clades. To understand biodiversity, it is important to examine the history of these clades on geological time scales. This is part of a distinct 'phylogenetic expansion' view of macroevolution, and contrasts with the alternative, nonphylogenetic 'equilibrium' approach to the history of biodiversity. The latter viewpoint focuses on density-dependent models in which all life is described by a single global-scale model, and a case is made here that this approach may be less successful at representing the shape of the evolution of life than the phylogenetic expansion approach. The terrestrial fossil record is patchy, but is adequate for coarse-scale studies of groups such as vertebrates that possess fossilizable hard parts. New methods in phylogenetic analysis, morphometrics and the study of exceptional biotas allow new approaches. Models for diversity regulation through time range from the entirely biotic to the entirely physical, with many intermediates. Tetrapod diversity has risen as a result of the expansion of ecospace, rather than niche subdivision or regional-scale endemicity resulting from continental break-up. Tetrapod communities on land have been remarkably stable and have changed only when there was a revolution in floras (such as the demise of the Carboniferous coal forests, or the Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms) or following particularly severe mass extinction events, such as that at the end of the Permian.

show abstract

“…Alternatively, groups experiencing high rates of phenotypic change (i.e. early bursts of morphological evolution) should be able to invade a larger breadth of niches, and thus promote rapid species diversification, implying that both processes are deterministic in an AR [25][26][27][28]. While this pattern has been detected [29], several studies have demonstrated that early bursts of species diversification may not be associated with early morphological bursts or low within-clade disparification [3,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for determinism in species diversification and contingency in phenotypic evolution during adaptive radiation

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adaptive radiation (AR) theory predicts that groups sharing the same source of ecological opportunity (EO) will experience deterministic species diversification and morphological evolution. Thus, deterministic ecological and morphological evolution should be correlated with deterministic patterns in the tempo and mode of speciation for groups in similar habitats and time periods. We test this hypothesis using wellsampled phylogenies of four squamate groups that colonized the New World (NW) in the Late Oligocene. We use both standard and coalescent models to assess species diversification, as well as likelihood models to examine morphological evolution. All squamate groups show similar early pulses of speciation, as well as diversity-dependent ecological limits on clade size at a continental scale. In contrast, processes of morphological evolution are not easily predictable and do not show similar pulses of early and rapid change. Patterns of morphological and species diversification thus appear uncoupled across these groups. This indicates that the processes that drive diversification and disparification are not mechanistically linked, even among similar groups of taxa experiencing the same sources of EO. It also suggests that processes of phenotypic diversification cannot be predicted solely from the existence of an AR or knowledge of the process of diversification.

show abstract

Adaptation, Versatility, and Evolution

Cited by 157 publications

References 49 publications

Biting disrupts integration to spur skull evolution in eels

Biting disrupts integration to spur skull evolution in eels

The origins of modern biodiversity on land

Evidence for determinism in species diversification and contingency in phenotypic evolution during adaptive radiation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About