Dataset: Siphonophore Phylogeny
Data Citation:
Haddock, S. H., Damian-Serrano, A., Dunn, C. W. (2023) Phylogeny of siphonophore specimens collected from multiple year fieldwork expeditions. Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). (Version 1) Version Date 2023-09-01 [if applicable, indicate subset used]. http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset/907525 [access date]
Terms of Use
This dataset is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
If you wish to use this dataset, it is highly recommended that you contact the original principal investigators (PI). Should the relevant PI be unavailable, please contact BCO-DMO (info@bco-dmo.org) for additional guidance. For general guidance please see the BCO-DMO Terms of Use document.
Principal Investigator:
Steven H. D. Haddock (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, MBARI)
Co-Principal Investigator:
Alejandro Damian-Serrano (Yale University)
Casey W. Dunn (Yale University)
Contact:
Steven H. D. Haddock (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, MBARI)
BCO-DMO Data Manager:
Taylor Heyl (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)
Version:
1
Version Date:
2023-09-01
Restricted:
No
Validated:
No
Current State:
Preliminary and in progress
Phylogeny of siphonophore specimens collected from multiple year fieldwork expeditions
Abstract:
Predator specialization has often been considered an evolutionary ‘dead-end’ due to the constraints associated with the evolution of morphological and functional optimizations throughout the organism. However, in some predators, these changes are localized in separate structures dedicated to prey capture. One of the most extreme cases of this modularity can be observed in siphonophores, a clade of pelagic colonial cnidarians that use tentilla (tentacle side branches armed with nematocysts) exclusively for prey capture. Here we study how siphonophore specialists and generalists evolve, and what morphological changes are associated with these transitions. To answer these questions, we: (1) measured 29 morphological characters of tentacles from 45 siphonophore species, (2) mapped these data to a phylogenetic tree, and (3) analyzed the evolutionary associations between morphological characters and prey type data from the literature. Instead of a dead-end, we found that siphonophore specialists can evolve into generalists, and that specialists on one prey type have directly evolved into specialists on other prey types. Our results show that siphonophore tentillum morphology has strong evolutionary associations with prey type, and suggest that shifts between prey types are linked to shifts in the morphology, mode of evolution, and genetic correlations of tentilla and their nematocysts. The evolutionary history of siphonophore specialization helps build a broader perspective on predatory niche diversification via morphological innovation and evolution. These findings contribute to understanding how specialization and morphological evolution have shaped present-day food webs.