Giant Mesozoic Coelacanths (Osteichthyes, Actinistia) Reveal High Body Size Disparity Decoupled From Taxic Diversity

Abstract

The positive correlation between speciation rates and morphological evolution expressed by body size is a macroevolutionary trait of vertebrates. Although taxic diversification and morphological evolution are slow in coelacanths, their fossil record indicates that large and small species coexisted, which calls into question the link between morphological and body size disparities. Here, we describe and reassess fossils of giant coelacanths. Two genera reached up to 5 meters long, placing them among the ten largest bony fish that ever lived. The disparity in body size adjusted to taxic diversity is much greater in coelacanths than in ray-finned fishes, and is decoupled from a high rate of speciation or a high rate of morphological evolution. Genomic and physiological characteristics of the extant Latimeria may reflect how the extinct relatives grew to such a large size. These characteristics highlight new evolutionary traits specific to these “living fossils”.

Evidence of large sturgeons in the Paleocene of North America

“…The high degree of body size disparity in extant sturgeons (Rabosky et al, 2013) contrasts with their status as a living fossil lineage, i.e., a long-lived, species-poor clade that shows little phenotypic change from ancient fossil relatives (Gardiner, 1984; Grande and Bemis, 1991; Bemis et al, 1997; Hilton et al, 2011). A similar pattern of proportionally high variation in body size relative to species diversity has also been documented in latimeroid coelacanths, which include the freshwater-brackish clade †Mawsoniidae (Cavin et al, 2021).…”