Abstract
Gobies and their relatives are significant components of nearshore marine, estuarine, and freshwater fish faunas in both tropical and temperate habitats worldwide. They are remarkable for their ability to adapt to and diversify in a wide range of environments. Among gobiiform clades, species diversities vary widely, ranging from two species in Kurtidae to more than 1,000 species in Gobiidae. There is also great variation in head and body shape and in environmental preferences (fresh, brackish, or marine habitats). In this study, I used a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny, coupled with morphometric and comparative analyses, to examine evolutionary rates of both speciation and morphological diversification among gobiiform lineages. Projection of the phylogeny onto a shape-derived morphospace shows that Gobioidei is morphometrically distinct from its sister taxon Apogonoidei, but that families within Gobioidei overlap in morphospace. Analysis of species diversification rates indicates that three rate shifts have occurred over the evolutionary history of Gobiiformes. Relative to the other lineages, Kurtidae has exhibited a slowdown in speciation, whereas both Apogonidae and Gobiidae + Gobionellidae have experienced an increase in diversification. Comparative analyses show that in Apogonidae and Gobiidae + Gobionellidae, increased speciation is correlated with diminished rates of morphological diversification, differently manifested in either clade and among the various sublineages. The elevation in speciation rates and diminishment in rates of morphological change in both Apogonidae and the clade Gobiidae + Gobionellidae are correlated with shifts to oceanic habitats from freshwater. This pattern is the complement to that seen across the global radiation of acanthomorph fishes in which a decrease in species diversification is associated with an increase in morphological disparity.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB 0108416) and by grants from the W. M. Keck and R. M. Parsons Foundations in support of the program in Molecular Systematics and Evolution at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I am grateful to P. Chakrabarty, W. L. Smith, and B. Sidlauskas for their extremely generous assistance with and advice on morphometrics and analyses. Helpful advice and assistance with the MEDUSA analyses were provided by M. Alfaro and P. Gilbert. I also thank P. Chakrabarty and J. Sparks (AMNH), M. McGrouther (AMS), S. Raredon (USNM), K. Swagel (FMNH), and J. Seigel (LACM) for providing specimens and radiographs. H. Larson generously provided specimens of Kurtus gulliveri on exchange to LACM, and D. Geiger expertly prepared Figs. 3, 4, 6, and 7.
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Thacker, C.E. Species and shape diversification are inversely correlated among gobies and cardinalfishes (Teleostei: Gobiiformes). Org Divers Evol 14, 419–436 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-014-0175-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-014-0175-5