Historical factors that have shaped the evolution of tropical reef fishes: a review of phylogenies, biogeography, and remaining questions
Cowman, Peter F. (2014) Historical factors that have shaped the evolution of tropical reef fishes: a review of phylogenies, biogeography, and remaining questions. Frontiers in Genetics, 5. 394. pp. 1-15.
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Abstract
Biodiversity patterns across the marine tropics have intrigued evolutionary biologists and ecologists alike. Tropical coral reefs host 1/3 of all marine species of fish on 0.1 of the ocean's surface. Yet our understanding of how mechanistic processes have underpinned the generation of diversity is limited. However, it has become clear that the biogeographic history of the marine tropics has played an important role in shaping the diversity of tropical reef fishes we see today. In the last decade, molecular phylogenies and age estimation techniques have provided a temporal framework in which the ancestral biogeographic origins of reef fish lineages have been inferred, but few have included fully sampled phylogenies or made inferences at a global scale. We are currently at a point where new sequencing technologies are accelerating the reconstruction and the resolution of the Fish Tree of Life. How will a complete phylogeny of fishes benefit the study of biodiversity in the tropics? Here, I review the literature concerning the evolutionary history of reef-associated fishes from a biogeographic perspective. I summarize the major biogeographic and climatic events over the last 65 million years that have regionalized the tropical marine belt and what effect they have had on the molecular record of fishes and global biodiversity patterns. By examining recent phylogenetic trees of major reef associated groups, I identify gaps to be filled in order to obtain a clearer picture of the origins of coral reef fish assemblages. Finally, I discuss questions that remain to be answered and new approaches to uncover the mechanistic processes that underpin the evolution of biodiversity on coral reefs.
| Item ID: | 47865 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1664-8021 |
| Keywords: | coral reef fishes, ancestral biogeography, marine tropics, phylogeny, diversification |
| Additional Information: | Copyright © 2014 Cowman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Funders: | Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) |
| Projects and Grants: | YIBS Gaylord Donnelley Postdoctoral Environment Fellowship |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Mar 2017 03:45 |
| FoR Codes: | 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0603 Evolutionary Biology > 060302 Biogeography and Phylogeography @ 40% 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0603 Evolutionary Biology > 060311 Speciation and Extinction @ 40% 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0603 Evolutionary Biology > 060309 Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis @ 20% |
| SEO Codes: | 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences @ 50% 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960808 Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity @ 50% |
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