Key Adaptive Trait Promotes Contrasting Modes of Diversification in a Bivalve Clade.

ABSTRACT: Siphons in bivalves have been postulated as a key adaptive trait, enabling modes of life inaccessible to asiphonate lineages, that afford better protection from predation and dislodgement, thereby enhancing their taxonomic diversification. To test the impact of siphons on diversity, we compared two bivalve clades with similar shell forms and life positions that differ in the presence/absence of this supposed key trait: the asiphonate Archiheterodonta (origin ~ 420 Myr ago) and the siphonate Veneridae (origin ~ 170 Myr ago). We measured three characters relevant to burrowing (shell length, cross-sectional area, and proportional shell volume) in these two groups, finding that siphonate venerids occupy more modes of life than archiheterodonts because they can live at a greater range of distan

SUBMITTER: Nigro ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11830643 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature