Evolutionary innovation accelerates morphological diversification in pufferfishes and their relatives

Evolutionary innovations have played an important role in shaping the diversity of life on Earth. However, how these innovations arise, and their downstream effects on patterns of morphological diversification remain poorly understood. Here, we examine the impact of evolutionary innovation on trait diversification in tetraodontiform fishes (pufferfishes, boxfishes, ocean sunfishes, and allies). This order provides an ideal model system for studying morphological diversification owing to their range of habitats and divergent morphologies, including the fusion of the teeth into a beak in several families. Using three-dimensional geometric morphometric data for 176 extant and fossil species, we examine the effect of skull integration and novel habitat association on the evolution of innovation. Strong integration may be a requirement for rapid trait evolution and facilitating the evolution of innovative structures, like the tetraodontiform beak. Our results show that the beak arose in the ..., Taxonomic sampling and CT-scan data acquisition
We analyzed the skull shape of 176 species of Tetraodontiformes, including 173 extant and three fossil species. This sampling encompasses all ten living families, with fossil representatives from Tetraodontidae and Triodontidae. A comprehensive list of the scanned species, scanning locations, and specimen voucher information is provided in Appendix 1 (Supplementary Material). We included three of the only known catalogued three-dimensional fossil tetraodontiform skulls, Sphoeroides hyperostosus† (Tetraodontidae), Triodon antiquus† (Triodontidae) and Ctenoplectus williamsi† (Triodontidae).  Each species was represented by a single adult specimen that underwent micro-CT scanning either at the University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories (Bruker Skyscan 1173; 40 species), Rice University (Bruker Skyscan 1273;  92 species), the University of New England, Australia (General Electric phoenix v|tome|x s; 13 species), Cornell University (Ge..., , # **Evolutionary innovation accelerates morphological diversification in pufferfishes and their relatives**

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjjx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjjx)

**1. Project Description:**

Evolutionary analysis of skull shape in tetraodontiform fishes. This supplemental dataset contains supplemental Appendices 1 and 2, which contain all R scripts and code needed to replicate results in this study.

**2. Contents:**

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Appendix 1: Appendix_1_CT_specimens_traits.xlsx

Description: Spreadsheet file containing list of species CT scanned, including museum collection code, specimen number, where the specimen was scanned, whether the scan is available on MorphoSource, and trait categorizations (habitat, mouth type).

Appendix 2: Appendix_2_R_Data_Files_Scripts.zip

Description: Zipped folder containing all files and code needed to reproduce results from all R analyses

File 1 Name: All_results_Code.RData
File 1 Description: The saved R analyses results....