title: Viviparity stimulates diversification in an order of fish.
abstract: Species richness is distributed unevenly across the tree of life and this may be influenced by the evolution of novel phenotypes that promote diversification. Viviparity has originated ∼150 times in vertebrates and is considered to be an adaptation to highly variable environments. Likewise, possessing an annual life cycle is common in plants and insects, where it enables the colonization of seasonal environments, but rare in vertebrates. The extent to which these reproductive life-history traits have enhanced diversification and their relative importance in the process remains unknown. We show that convergent evolution of viviparity causes bursts of diversification in fish. We built a phylogenetic tree for Cyprinodontiformes, an order in which both annualism and viviparity have arisen, and reveal that while both traits have evolved multiple times, only viviparity played a major role in shaping the patterns of diversity. These results demonstrate that changes in reproductive life-history strategy can stimulate diversification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Helmstetter
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.|Department of Conservation Science, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond TW9 3AB, UK.
authors.forename: Alexander S T
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Papadopulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.|Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Igea
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Ecology, CNRS/UPMC/UPEC/UPD/IRD/INRA, UMR 7618 Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Paris (iEES), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Case 237, 7 Quai St Bernard, 75005 Paris, France.|CNRS/ENS. UMS 3194, CEREEP. Ecotron IleDeFrance, École Normale Supérieure, 78 rue du Château, 77140 St-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France.|Research Team Endless Forms, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, Leiden 2333 CR, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tom J M
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Van Dooren
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.
authors.forename: Armand M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Leroi
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5350-9984
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Savolainen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003532:Cyprinodontiformes / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D013997:Time Factors; D052286:Viviparity, Nonmammalian / Q000502:physiology*