Evolutionary radiation

Not to be confused with Adaptive radiation.
Evolutionary radiations during the Phanerozoic.

An evolutionary radiation is an increase in taxonomic diversity that is caused by elevated rates of speciation,[1] that may or may not be associated with an increase in morphological disparity.[2] A significantly large and diverse radiation within a relatively short geologic time scale (e.g. a period or epoch) is often referred to as an explosion. Radiations may affect one clade or many, and be rapid or gradual; where they are rapid, and driven by a single lineage's adaptation to their environment, they are termed adaptive radiations.[3]

Examples

Perhaps the most familiar example of an evolutionary radiation is that of placental mammals immediately after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago. At that time, the placental mammals were mostly small, insect-eating animals similar in size and shape to modern shrews. By the Eocene (58–37 million years ago), they had evolved into such diverse forms as bats, whales, and horses.[4]

Other familiar radiations include the Avalon Explosion, the Cambrian Explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, the Carboniferous-Earliest Permian Biodiversification Event, the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Radiation, the radiation of land plants after their colonisation of land, the Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms, and the diversification of insects, a radiation that has continued almost unabated since the Devonian, 400 million years ago.[5]

Types

Adaptive radiations involve an increase in a clade's speciation rate coupled with divergence of morphological features that are directly related to ecological habits; these radiations involve speciation not driven by geographic factors and occurring in sympatry; they also may be associated with the acquisition of a key trait.[6] Nonadaptive radiations arguably encompass every type of evolutionary radiation that is not an adaptive radiation,[7][8] although when a more precise mechanism is known to drive diversity, it can be useful to refer to the pattern as, e.g., a geographic radiation.[1] Geographic radiations involve an increase in speciation caused by increasing opportunities for geographic isolation.[1] Radiations may be discordant, with either diversity or disparity increasing almost independently of the other, or concordant, where both increase at a similar rate.[2] Where the mechanism of diversification is ambiguous and the species seem to be closely related, sometimes the terms "species radiation," "species flock" or "species complex" are used.[9]

In the fossil record

Much of the work carried out by palaeontologists studying evolutionary radiations has been using marine invertebrate fossils simply because these tend to be much more numerous and easy to collect in quantity than large land vertebrates such as mammals or dinosaurs. Brachiopods, for example, underwent major bursts of evolutionary radiation in the Early Cambrian, Early Ordovician, to a lesser degree throughout the Silurian and Devonian, and then again during the Carboniferous and earliest Permian. During these periods, different species of brachiopods independently assumed a similar morphology, and presumably mode of life, to species that had lived millions of years before. This phenomenon, known as homeomorphy, is explained by convergent evolution: when subjected to similar selective pressures, organisms will often evolve similar adaptations.[10] Further examples of rapid evolutionary radiation can be observed among ammonites, which suffered a series of extinctions from which they repeatedly re-diversified; and trilobites which, during the Cambrian, rapidly evolved into a variety of forms occupying many of the niches exploited by crustaceans today.[11][12][13]

Recent examples

A number of groups have undergone evolutionary radiation in relatively recent times. The cichlids in particular have been much studied by biologists. In places such as Lake Malawi they have evolved into a very wide variety of forms, including species that are filter feeders, snail eaters, brood parasites, algal grazers, and fish-eaters.[14] Caribbean anoline lizards are another well-known example of an adaptive radiation.[15] Grasses have been a success, evolving in parallel with grazing herbivores such as horses and antelope.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Simões, M.; et al. (2016). "The evolving theory of evolutionary radiations". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 31 (1): 27–34. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.10.007. PMID 26632984.
  2. ^ a b Wesley-Hunt, G. D. (2005). "The morphological diversification of carnivores in North America". Paleobiology. 31: 35–55. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031<0035:TMDOCI>2.0.CO;2. S2CID 10989917.
  3. ^ Schluter, D. (2000). The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ This topic is covered in a very accessible manner in Chapter 11 of Richard Fortey's Life: An Unauthorised Biography (1997)
  5. ^ The radiation only suffered one hiccup, when the Permo-Triassic extinction event wiped out many species.
  6. ^ Lieberman, B.S. (2012). "Adaptive radiations in the context of macroevolutionary theory: a paleontological perspective" (PDF). Evolutionary Biology. 39 (2): 181–191. doi:10.1007/s11692-012-9165-8. hdl:1808/13649. S2CID 4004118.
  7. ^ Czekanski-Moir, Jesse E.; Rundell, Rebecca J. (2019-05-01). "The Ecology of Nonecological Speciation and Nonadaptive Radiations". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 34 (5): 400–415. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.012. ISSN 0169-5347. PMID 30824193. S2CID 73494468.
  8. ^ Rundell, Rebecca J.; Price, Trevor D. (2009-07-01). "Adaptive radiation, nonadaptive radiation, ecological speciation and nonecological speciation". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 24 (7): 394–399. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.02.007. ISSN 0169-5347. PMID 19409647.
  9. ^ Bowen, Brian W.; Forsman, Zac H.; Whitney, Jonathan L.; Faucci, Anuschka; Hoban, Mykle; Canfield, Sean J.; Johnston, Erika C.; Coleman, Richard R.; Copus, Joshua M.; Vicente, Jan; Toonen, Robert J. (2020-02-05). "Species Radiations in the Sea: What the Flock?". Journal of Heredity. 111 (1): 70–83. doi:10.1093/jhered/esz075. ISSN 0022-1503. PMID 31943081.
  10. ^ Rudwick, M. J. S. (1970). Living and Fossil Brachiopods. Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091030810.
  11. ^ Aquagenesis, The Origins and Evolution of Life in the Sea by Richard Ellis (2001)
  12. ^ Monks, Neale; Palmer, Philip (2002). Ammonites. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1588340474.
  13. ^ Fortey, Richard (2000). Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780002570121.
  14. ^ The Cichlid Fishes: Nature's Grand Experiment in Evolution by George Barlow (2002)
  15. ^ Parallel Adaptive Radiations - Caribbean Anoline Lizards. Todd Jackman. Villanova University. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  16. ^ Palaeos Cenozoic: The Cenozoic Era Archived 2008-11-06 at the Wayback Machine