Radiating pain: venom has contributed to the diversification of the largest radiations of vertebrate and invertebrate animals.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding drivers of animal biodiversity has been a longstanding aim in evolutionary biology. Insects and fishes represent the largest lineages of invertebrates and vertebrates respectively, and consequently many ideas have been proposed to explain this diversity. Natural enemy interactions are often important in diversification dynamics, and key traits that mediate such interactions may therefore have an important role in explaining organismal diversity. Venom is one such trait which is intricately bound in antagonistic coevolution and has recently been shown to be associated with increased diversification rates in tetrapods. Despite ~ 10% of fish families and ~ 16% of insect families containing venomous species, the role that venom may play in these two superradiat

SUBMITTER: Arbuckle K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8336261 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature