Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
eLife
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41230944/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Table of Contents:
- Integration of multi-level dental diversity links macro-evolutionary patterns to ecological strategies across sharks. Zimm, Roland Tobias Santos, Vitória Goudemand, Nicolas Animals Sharks Tooth Biological Evolution Phylogeny Dentition Ecosystem The exceptional dental diversity in sharks is frequently used as a proxy for ecological function. However, functional inferences from morphology need to consider morphological features across different organizational scales and spatial resolutions. Here, we compare morphological features ranging from sub-dental patterns to whole dentitions within a large ensemble of species encompassing all extant shark orders. Although taxa scoring high for different heterodonty measures are distributed throughout the phylogeny, the two shark superorders show a different degree of modularity between mono- and dignathic heterodonty as well as substantial differences in ecological niches. Intriguingly, we observe two alternative ways of increasing dental complexity: either at the tooth- or dentition-level. Correlating heterodonty and single-tooth complexity with ecological and life-history traits, we find that pelagic and demersal species evolve dental complexity in different ways. We track trait variability as a function of genetic distance, thus quantifying dental trait adaptability at different resolutions. Overall, intermediate resolution levels, namely the degree of monognathic heterodonty, predict ecological traits best but carry a relatively low phylogenetic signal, suggesting a more dynamic adaptability on shorter evolutionary timescales. This raises macro-evolutionary interpretations about the evolvability of nested modular phenotypic structures, with important implications for paleo-ecological inferences from sequentially homologous traits.