Ng, Isabelle, Bellwood, David R., Strugnell, Jan M., Parravicini, Valeriano, and Siqueira Correa, Alexandre C. (2024) The rise of dietary diversity in coral reef fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences, 291. 20241004.

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Abstract

Diet has been identified as a major driver of reef fish lineage diversification, producing one of the most speciose vertebrate assemblages today. Yet, there is minimal understanding of how, when and why diet itself has evolved. To address this, we used a comprehensive gut content dataset, alongside a recently developed phylogenetic comparative method to assess multivariate prey use across a diverse animal assemblage, coral reef fishes. Specifically, we investigated the diversification, transitions and phylogenetic conservatism of fish diets through evolutionary time. We found two major pulses of diet diversification: one at the end-Cretaceous and one during the Eocene, suggesting that the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction probably provided the initial ecological landscape for fish diets to diversify. The birth of modern families during the Eocene then provided the foundation for a second wave of dietary expansion. Together, our findings showcase the role of extinction rebound events in shaping the dietary diversity of fishes on present-day coral reefs.

Item ID:	85696
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1471-2954
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC FL190100062
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2025 01:10
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 70% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3109 Zoology > 310904 Animal diet and nutrition @ 30%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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