Does evolutionary relatedness predict ecological similarity?

Abstract

A fundamental question in paleobiology is whether ecology is correlated with evolutionary history. By combining time-calibrated phylogenetic trees with genus occurrence data through time, we can understand how environmental preferences are distributed on a tree and evaluate support for models of ecological similarity. Exploring parameters that lend support to each evolutionary model will help address questions that lie at the nexus of the evolutionary and ecological sciences. We calculated ecological difference and phylogenetic distance between species pairs for 83 taxa used in recent phylogenetic revisions of the brachiopod order Strophomenida. Ecological difference was calculated as the pairwise distance along gradients of water depth, carbonate, and latitudinal affinity. Phylogenetic distance was calculated as the pairwise branch length between tips of the tree. Our results show no relationship between ecological affinity and phylogeny. Instead results suggest an ecological burst during the initial radiation of the clade. This pattern likely reflects scaling at the largest macroevolutionary and macroecological scales preserved in the fossil record. Hierarchical scaling of ecological and evolutionary processes is complex, but phylogenetic paleoecology is an avenue for better evaluating these questions.

Phylogenetic paleoecology: macroecology within an evolutionary framework

“…Hughes and Lamsdell (2021) explore the phylogenetic distribution of prey size in stylonurine eurypterids and the role that prey specialization may have had on the survivorship of certain eurypterid groups during the Late Devonian biotic crisis, determining that prey availability may have mediated their transition to freshwater environments but that survivorship was most likely influenced by other traits, such as geographic range. Sclafani et al (2021) tackle the relationship between evolutionary history and ecology directly by comparing metrics for ecological distance and phylogenetic distance between strophomenid brachiopods. Ecological distance and phylogenetic distance are shown not to correlate, reinforcing the conflicting relationship between the two biological hierarchies.…”