Meeting Abstract
Adaptation to life in extreme environments is expected to have evolutionary consequences for organisms. Minimally, organisms inhabiting extreme environments must have features that facilitate their survival in these challenging environments. The physiological, geographical, and ecological conditions of the environment may also act as isolating mechanisms, reinforcing differences between extremophiles and their kin. These circumstances may lead to adaptive radiations and strong genetic and phenotypic differentiation between extremophile and “regular” lineages. Here we explore use phylogenetic comparisons to explore the genetic and phenotypic signature of life in extreme environments in sea anemones (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria). We find evidence for some clade-specific radiations in extreme environments and identify features that appear to coincide with life in extreme environments, but see little evidence for widespread genomic or evolutionary rate differences between lineages in polar, vent, and hydrothermal habitats, compared to those in tropical, temperate, or shelf habitats.
