We get by with a little help from our friends: shared adaptive variation provides a bridge to novel ecological specialists during adaptive radiation.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive radiations involve astounding bursts of phenotypic, ecological and species diversity. However, the microevolutionary processes that underlie the origins of these bursts are still poorly understood. We report the discovery of an intermediate C. sp. 'wide-mouth' scale-eating ecomorph in a sympatric radiation of Cyprinodon pupfishes, illuminating the transition from a widespread algae-eating generalist to a novel microendemic scale-eating specialist. We first show that this ecomorph occurs in sympatry with generalist C. variegatus and scale-eating specialist C. desquamator on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, but is genetically differentiated, morphologically distinct and often consumes scales. We then compared the timing of selective sweeps on shared and uniq

SUBMITTER: Richards EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9130792 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature