A pharyngeal jaw evolutionary innovation facilitated extinction in Lake Victoria cichlids

Mc Gee, Matthew David; Borstein, S. R.; Neches, R. Y.; Buescher, H. H.; Seehausen, Ole; Wainwright, P. C. (2015). A pharyngeal jaw evolutionary innovation facilitated extinction in Lake Victoria cichlids. Science, 350(6264), pp. 1077-1079. American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.1126/science.aab0800

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Evolutionary innovations, traits that give species access to previously unoccupied niches, may promote speciation and adaptive radiation. Here, we show that such innovations can also result in competitive inferiority and extinction. We present evidence that the modified pharyngeal jaws of cichlid fishes and several marine fish lineages, a classic example of evolutionary innovation, are not universally beneficial. A large-scale analysis of dietary evolution across marine fish lineages reveals that the innovation compromises access to energy-rich predator niches. We show that this competitive inferiority shaped the adaptive radiation of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika and played a pivotal and previously unrecognized role in the mass extinction of cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria after Nile perch invasion.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) > Aquatic Ecology
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE)

UniBE Contributor:

Mc Gee, Matthew David, Seehausen, Ole

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

0036-8075

Publisher:

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Marcel Häsler

Date Deposited:

04 Dec 2015 17:48

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:50

Publisher DOI:

10.1126/science.aab0800

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.73528

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/73528

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