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ABSTRACT Trophic ecology is thought to exert a profound influence on biodiversity, but the specifics of the process are rarely examined at large spatial and evolutionary scales. We

investigate how trophic position and diet breadth influence functional trait evolution in one of the most species-rich and complex vertebrate assemblages, coral reef fishes, within a

large-scale phylogenetic framework. We show that, in contrast with established theory, functional traits evolve fastest in trophic specialists with narrow diet breadths at both very low and

high trophic positions. Top trophic level specialists exhibit the most functional diversity, while omnivorous taxa with intermediate trophic positions and wide diet breadth have the least

functional diversity. Our results reveal the importance of trophic position in shaping evolutionary dynamics while simultaneously highlighting the incredible trophic and functional diversity

present in coral reef fish assemblages. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through

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CONSERVATISM DRIVES NUTRIENT DYNAMICS OF CORAL REEF FISHES Article Open access 14 September 2021 THE EVOLUTION OF FAST-GROWING CORAL REEF FISHES Article 17 May 2023 TEMPERATURE, SPECIES

IDENTITY AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS PREDICT CARBONATE EXCRETION AND MINERALOGY IN TROPICAL REEF FISHES Article Open access 22 February 2023 DATA AVAILABILITY Data and scripts used in this

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B. Matthews for comments on the manuscript. Research was supported by NSF DEB-1701913 to S.R.B. and B.C.O., NSF DEB-1556953 to P.C.W., and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

at the University of Tennessee (S.R.B.). AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA Samuel R.

Borstein, James A. Fordyce & Brian C. O’Meara * Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA Peter C. Wainwright * School of Biological Sciences,

Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Matthew D. McGee Authors * Samuel R. Borstein View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * James

A. Fordyce View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Brian C. O’Meara View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * Peter C. Wainwright View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Matthew D. McGee View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS S.R.B. and M.D.M. designed the study. S.R.B. and J.A.F. performed the analyses. S.R.B., J.A.F. and M.D.M. wrote the manuscript with

substantial comments from B.C.O. and P.C.W. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Samuel R. Borstein. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests.

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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Methods, Results, Tables 5–20 and Figures 1–6 REPORTING SUMMARY SUPPLEMENTARY DATA Time-calibrated phylogeny of 1,545 acanthomorph fish used to

perform phylogenetic comparative analyses SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1 Species standard, fork and total lengths; scale in pixels; photo author; photo source; calculated trophic level and trophic

grouping. See Supplementary Information for citations of image sources in the source column SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2 GenBank accessions for 15 genes used in phylogenetic reconstruction

SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 3 Digitized landmark coordinates for 1,545 species of reef acanthomorphs SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 4 Number of species per trophic level by family for 92 families of reef

acanthomorphs RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Borstein, S.R., Fordyce, J.A., O’Meara, B.C. _et al._ Reef fish functional traits evolve

fastest at trophic extremes. _Nat Ecol Evol_ 3, 191–199 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0725-x Download citation * Received: 13 May 2018 * Accepted: 21 October 2018 * Published:

26 November 2018 * Issue Date: February 2019 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0725-x SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

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