The evolution of broad seascape utility and ontogenetic life history variation in lutjanids
Davis, Aaron M., Sheaves, Marcus, Venkataraman, Ajay, and Betancur-R, Ricardo (2025) The evolution of broad seascape utility and ontogenetic life history variation in lutjanids. Scientific Reports, 15 (1). 21766.
|
PDF (Published Version)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
While ontogenetic habitat shifts are a widely appreciated phenomenon across fishes, the macroevolutionary implications of habitat shifts and subsequent ecological opportunity have mainly focused on adult organisms, largely overlooking juvenile life history diversification. The snappers and fusiliers (Lutjanidae) represent a successful tropical teleost radiation exhibiting complex ontogenetic shifts and use of diverse nursery and adult habitats across the marine–freshwater interface. Lutjanids collectively occupy a broad range of environments within the seascape mosaic, including freshwater rivers, estuaries, reefs, and deep offshore slopes. Using an extensive phylogenomic dataset of ~ 110 species, we test models of juvenile and adult habitat evolution across seascape gradients. Evolutionary model fitting and ancestral state reconstructions, conducted independently for juvenile nurseries and adult habitats, both support an ordered, stepwise pattern of habitat transitions, with low-salinity associations evolving only via intermediate coastal habitats. This ‘stepping stone’ model of marine–freshwater macroevolution saw adoption of low salinity habitats preceded by adaptation to intermediate brackish habitats, rather than random jumps between widely separated seascape components. While our results highlight that ontogenetic shifts have been central to lutjanid diversification, more consistent and transferable research frameworks are required to clarify the ecological and evolutionary implications of lutjanid life history diversity.
| Item ID: | 87693 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Keywords: | Macroevolution, Marine-freshwater interface, Nursery habitat, Ontogeny |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2026 05:41 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180504 Marine biodiversity @ 100% |
| More Statistics |
Actions (Repository Staff Only)
 |
Item Control Page |