Journal
EVOLUTION
Volume 76, Issue 12, Pages 3026-3040Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/evo.14647
Keywords
Deep sea; evolution of trait loss; gastropod; pattern; pigment; vision
Categories
Funding
- Total Foundation
- Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
- Stavros Niarchos Foundation
- Lounsbery Foundation
- Parc National de la Guadeloupe
- Departmental Investment Funding from The Natural History Museum, London
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This study investigates the evolutionary loss of shell pigmentation, pattern, and eye structure in deep-sea gastropods. The results show that the loss of these traits is irreversible, occurs at different rates, and is correlated with increasing depth. It is also found that species with better vision have poor spatial acuity and contrast sensitivity, indicating relatively weak visual abilities in deep-sea gastropods.
Adaptations to habitats lacking light, such as the reduction or loss of eyes and pigmentation, have fascinated biologists for centuries, yet have rarely been studied in the deep sea, the earth's oldest and largest light-limited habitat. Here, we investigate the evolutionary loss of shell pigmentation, pattern, and eye structure across a family of deep-sea gastropods (Solariellidae). We show that within our phylogenetic framework, loss of these traits evolves without reversal, at different rates (faster for shell traits than eye structure), and over different depth ranges. Using a Bayesian approach, we find support for correlated evolution of trait loss with increasing depth within the dysphotic region. A transition to trait loss occurs for pattern and eye structure at 400-500 m and for pigmentation at 600-700 m. We also show that one of the sighted, shallow-water species, Ilanga navakaensis, which may represent the best-case scenario for vision for the family, likely has poor spatial acuity and contrast sensitivity. We therefore propose that pigmentation and pattern are not used for intraspecific communication but are important for camouflage from visual predators, and that the low-resolution vision of solariellids is likely to require high light intensity for basic visual tasks, such as detecting predators.
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