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. 2014;161(5):1139-1148.
doi: 10.1007/s00227-014-2406-x. Epub 2014 Feb 21.

Species-specific bioluminescence facilitates speciation in the deep sea

Matthew P Davis  1 , Nancy I Holcroft  2 , Edward O Wiley  1 , John S Sparks  3 , W Leo Smith  1
Affiliations

Species-specific bioluminescence facilitates speciation in the deep sea

Matthew P Davis et al. Mar Biol. 2014.

Abstract

The vast darkness of the deep sea is an environment with few obvious genetic isolating barriers, and little is known regarding the macroevolutionary processes that have shaped present-day biodiversity in this habitat. Bioluminescence, the production and emission of light from a living organism through a chemical reaction, is thought to occur in approximately 80 % of the eukaryotic life that inhabits the deep sea (water depth greater than 200 m). In this study, we show, for the first time, that deep-sea fishes that possess species-specific bioluminescent structures (e.g., lanternfishes, dragonfishes) are diversifying into new species at a more rapid rate than deep-sea fishes that utilize bioluminescence in ways that would not promote isolation of populations (e.g., camouflage, predation). This work adds to our understanding of how life thrives and evolution shaped present-day biodiversity in the deep sea, the largest and arguably least explored habitat on earth.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Temporal hypothesis of the relationships of ray-finned fishes indicating the evolution of bioluminescent photophores among representative deep-sea lineages. Species richness curve indicates the 95 % confidence interval for the expected number of species given clade age given a net diversification rate and relative rate of extinction
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Relative warp analysis of lateral and ventral photophore series among genera in the lanternfish subfamily Lampanyctinae for the first (X axis) and second (Y axis) relative warp scores
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Relative warp analysis of lateral and ventral photophore series among species in the lanternfish genus Diaphus for the first (X axis) and second (Y axis) relative warp scores
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Temporal hypothesis of the relationships of the Myctophiformes (Neoscopelidae and Myctophidae). Species richness curve indicates the 95 % confidence interval for the expected number of species given clade age given a net diversification rate and relative rate of extinction
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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