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Macroevolutionary analyses suggest environmental factors, not venom apparatus, play key role in Terebridae marine snail diversification
Modica, M.V.; Gorson, J.; Fedosov, A.E.; Malcolm, G.; Terryn, Y.; Puillandre, N.; Holford, M. (2019). Macroevolutionary analyses suggest environmental factors, not venom apparatus, play key role in Terebridae marine snail diversification. Syst. Biol. Manuscript. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syz059
In: Systematic Biology. Oxford University Press: Washington, D.C.. ISSN 1063-5157; e-ISSN 1076-836X, more
Peer reviewed article  

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Keywords
    Conidae J. Fleming, 1822 [WoRMS]; Terebridae Mörch, 1852 [WoRMS]
Author keywords
    Macroevolution, Phylogenetic Comparative Methods (PCM), venom, Conidae, diversification

Authors  Top 
  • Modica, M.V.
  • Gorson, J.
  • Fedosov, A.E.
  • Malcolm, G.
  • Terryn, Y., more
  • Puillandre, N.
  • Holford, M.

Abstract
    How species diversification occurs remains an unanswered question in predatory marine invertebrates, such as sea snails of the family Terebridae. However, the anatomical disparity found throughput the Terebridae provides a unique perspective for investigating diversification patterns in venomous predators. Here a new dated molecular phylogeny of the Terebridae is used as a framework for investigating diversification of the family through time, and for testing the putative role of intrinsic and extrinsic traits, such as shell size, larval ecology, bathymetric distribution, and anatomical features of the venom apparatus, as drivers of terebrid species diversification. Macroevolutionary analysis revealed that while diversification rates do not vary across Terebridae clades, the whole family has been increasing its global diversification rate since 25 Ma. We recovered evidence for a concurrent increase in diversification of depth ranges, while shell size appeared to have undergone a fast divergence early in terebrid evolutionary history. Our data also confirms that planktotrophy is the ancestral larval ecology in terebrids, and evolutionary modeling highlighted that shell size is linked to larval ecology of the Terebridae, with species with long-living pelagic larvae tending to be larger and have a broader size range than lecithotrophic species. While we recovered patterns of size and depth trait diversification through time and across clades, the presence or absence of a venom gland did not appear to have impacted Terebridae diversification. Terebrids have lost their venom apparatus several times and we confirm that the loss of a venom gland happened in phylogenetically clustered terminal taxa and that reversal is extremely unlikely. Our findings suggest environmental factors, and not venom, has had more influence on terebrid evolution.

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