Meeting Abstract

39.1  Tuesday, Jan. 5  Origin ad evolution of the coral reef fish fauna SANTINI, F.*; ALFARO, M.E.; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of California, Los Angeles santini@eeb.ucla.edu

Coral reefs occupy less than 2% of marine surface, yet about 40% of the approximately 170000 marine fish species live predominantly or exclusively on coral reefs. Earlier studies of tetraodontiform fishes (puffers, box- and triggerfish) showed that reef-associated fish clades are significantly more diverse than non reef clades, suggesting that coral reefs have increased fish diversification rates. Here we test whether reef-association has driven diversification in other fish clades as well using time-calibrated phylogenies from 28 reef-associated clades. Analysis of diversification rates for 42 groups based upon method of moments estimates (Magallon and Sanderson, 2001) , indicates that reef clades have higher diversification rates than teleost fish as a whole. However we find that most named reef clades are not significantly more diverse than percomorphs. We also apply recently developed comparative methods to test for exceptionally rapid or slow diversification events within reef families and across time periods.