Reef fish species at the extremes of the food chain—those that are strict herbivores or strict fish predators—evolve faster than fish species in the middle of the food chain with a more varied diet, according to a new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The paper, co-authored by Samuel Borstein, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, could challenge the way scientists think about evolution in relation to the position a species holds on the food chain.
Up until now, scientists thought that species that eat a wide variety of different foods might evolve quicker and show more variations in morphology—physical aspects such as size, shape, and color.