BioProject

The goal of this project is to present the most complete and well supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the family Embiotocidae (surfperches) based on hundreds of genomic markers. More...

The goal of this project is to present the most complete and well supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the family Embiotocidae (surfperches) based on hundreds of genomic markers. Surfperch are a family of viviparous marine fishes endemic to the North Pacific and serve as an attractive study system due to their unique life history traits. Previous work suggests embiotocid diversity is a product of adaptive radiation driven by ecological competition and niche partitioning. However, in order to fully understand the underpinnings of surfperches evolutionary history a robust phylogenetic hypothesis is necessary. With this data we reconstructed the family’s evolutionary history using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference with supermatrices constructed from genome wide RAD seq data. Our results support a scenario where ancestral embiotocids first split between sandy and reef habitats during the middle Miocene after which each lineage underwent subsequent radiations and specializations. Less...