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Convergence in the size and frequency of macroevolutionary peak-shifts on the adaptive landscape in vertebrates.
Nature Communications · · Journal Article · Open access
Pagel, O'Donovan + 1 more
Abstract ↗AI summary
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Rare body-size peak-shifts show repeated convergence across vertebrates, with aquatic species having the largest and most frequent shifts, followed by terrestrial, then volant.
- Why it matters: Understanding what controls movements of adaptive peaks is key to explaining macroevolution as phenotypes track shifting optima with occasional large changes.
- What they did: Using a dataset of over 21,000 species across Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Fish, and Amphibians, the study quantified the magnitude and frequency of rare body-size peak-shifts by dominant ecology.
- The result: Peak-shifts are largest and most frequent in aquatic species, with smaller and less frequent shifts in terrestrial and volant species, and within-population trait-variances are highest in aquatic, matching differing macroevolutionary landscapes.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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