Continental cichlid radiations: functional diversity reveals the role of changing ecological opportunity in the Neotropics.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive radiations have been hypothesized to contribute broadly to the diversity of organisms. Models of adaptive radiation predict that ecological opportunity and ecological release, the availability of empty ecological niches and the response by adapting lineages to occupy them, respectively, drive patterns of phenotypic and lineage diversification. Adaptive radiations driven by 'ecological opportunity' are well established in island systems; it is less clear if ecological opportunity influences continent-wide diversification. We use Neotropical cichlid fishes to test if variation in rates of functional evolution is consistent with changing ecological opportunity. Across a functional morphological axis associated with ram-suction feeding traits, evolutionary rates declined through time

SUBMITTER: Arbour JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5013758 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature