Wednesday May 14, 2025
Oceanographic —
The biodiversity of the Earth’s oceans is disproportionately concentrated in coral reefs, findings from a new study led by researchers at Yale University has found, offering the first insights into these ecosystems are so rich in rapid species diversification.
A new study from Yale has shed light on how coral reefs became biodiversity hotspots by charting the evolutionary trajectories of the coral-reef fish wrasses and parrotfishes – two fish ranked among the most species-rich and ecologically diverse lineages of reef fishes, accounting for more than 650 species.
According to the paper, published in the scientific journal Science Advances earlier this month, these fish – which comprise the family Labridae – experienced an explosion of “evolutionary innovation” and “accelerated species diversification” during the early Miocene, some 20 million years ago.
“Multiple lineages of wrasses and parrotfishes diversified and dispersed rapidly and recently,” said Chase D Brownstein, a graduate student in Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the study’s lead author. “This explosion of diversity resulted from multiple, independent events happening simultaneously across the wrasse and parrotfish Tree of Life.