Hitting rock bottom: exaptation, ecological filtering and the benthopelagic divergence of Percid fishes

Ecological filtering and exaptation are related concepts in which prior traits and adaptations facilitate transitions to new habitats or niches, sometimes by being co-opted for a new function. I investigated possible ecological filtering/exaptation in Percidae, a family of freshwater fishes that shows its highest species richness in small benthic fishes living in creeks and small streams. I hypothesize that traits associated with transitions to benthic living subsequently facilitated the colonization of small river habitats. Using phylogenetic comparative approaches, I found that transitions in river size were dependent on presence or absence of a gas bladder, and long-term residency in small rivers in particular was associated with transitions to benthic living. Based on body size and 3D whole body shape datasets, I found that selection towards smaller bodies and longer caudal peduncles in benthic species in large rivers appears to have enabled transitions to small rivers, while also s..., , # Data from: Hitting rock bottom: exaptation, ecological filtering and the benthopelagic divergence of Percid fishes

(published in the journal Evolution)

Authors: Jessica H. Arbour

correspondence: Jessica H. Arbour; [[[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])]

The associated dryad repository contains two files:

(1) a xlsx file that contains the supporting data used for the analyses in the manuscript

This file contains two tables. \"ecological and body size data\" includes data on the presence/absence of gas bladders, the categorization of large and small river habitats, and the maximum observed body size (maximum TL - total length - in cm) per species. The second table \"geomorph landmark data\" contains average coordinate data for each species, with landmark x, y and z coordinates given in order for each landmark (sensu two.d.array from the R package geomorph).

(2) a phylogenetic tree file corresponding to the taxa in this study. Tree from Arbour and Stanchak (2021) \"...,