A continuous fish fossil record reveals key insights into adaptive radiation.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive radiations have been instrumental in generating a considerable amount of life's diversity. Ecological opportunity is thought to be a prerequisite for adaptive radiation¹, but little is known about the relative importance of species' ecological versatility versus effects of arrival order in determining which lineage radiates². Palaeontological records that could help answer this are scarce. In Lake Victoria, a large adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes evolved in an exceptionally short and recent time interval³. We present a rich continuous fossil record extracted from a series of long sediment cores along an onshore-offshore gradient. We reconstruct the temporal sequence of events in the assembly of the fish community from thousands of tooth fossil

SUBMITTER: Ngoepe N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10567567 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature