Publications by authors named "Hermione T Beckett"
Morphological evolution of the vertebrate skull has been explored across a wide range of tetrapod clades using geometric morphometrics, but the application of these methods to teleost fishes, accounting for roughly half of all vertebrate species, has been limited. Here we present the results of a study investigating 3D morphological evolution of the neurocranium across 114 species of Pelagiaria, a diverse clade of open-ocean teleost fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. Despite showing high shape disparity overall, taxa from all families fall into three distinct morphological clusters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany modern groups of marine fishes first appear in the fossil record during the early Palaeogene (66-40 Ma), including iconic predatory lineages of spiny-rayed fishes that appear to have originated in response to ecological roles left empty after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene extinction. The hypothesis of extinction-mediated ecological release likewise predicts that other fish groups have adopted novel predatory ecologies. Here, we report remarkable trophic innovation in early Palaeogene clupeiforms (herrings and allies), a group whose modern representatives are generally small-bodied planktivores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - The fish clade Pelagiaria, which includes well-known species like tunas, shows impressive variety in shape and ecological roles despite living in the challenging environment of the open ocean, and its evolutionary relationships have been difficult to pinpoint due to rapid divergences early in its history.
- - A new study using a large dataset of DNA elements has created a time-calibrated family tree for over 70% of Pelagiaria species, revealing that while some relationships are expected, others are surprising and have strong support.
- - The findings indicate that Pelagiaria has high diversity in body shapes but relatively fewer species compared to other fish groups, suggesting that studying similar open-ocean species can help understand fish evolution more broadly.