Teleost fishes account for 96% of all fish species and exhibit a spectacular variety of body forms. Teleost lineages range from deep bodied to elongate (e.g., eels, needlefish), laterally compressed (e.g., ribbonfish) to globular (e.g., pufferfish), and include uniquely shaped lineages such as seahorses, flatfishes, and ocean sunfishes. Adaptive body shape convergence within fishes has long been hypothesized but the nature of...

Deep‐sea fishes have long captured our imagination with striking adaptations to life in the mysterious abyss, raising the possibility that this cold, dark ocean region may be a key hub for physiological and functional diversification. We explore this idea through an analysis of body shape evolution across ocean depth zones in over 3000 species of marine teleost fishes. We find that the deep ocean contains twice the body shape...

Antipredator defensive traits are thought to trade‐off evolutionarily with traits that facilitate predator avoidance. However, complexity and scale have precluded tests of this prediction in many groups, including fishes. Using a macroevolutionary approach, we test this prediction in butterflyfishes, an iconic group of coral reef inhabitants with diverse social behaviours, foraging strategies and antipredator adaptations. We f...

Islands can be sites of dynamic evolutionary radiations, and the Hawaiian Islands have certainly given us a bounty of insights into the processes and mechanisms of diversification. Adaptive radiations in silverswords and honeycreepers have inspired a generation of biologists with evidence of rapid diversification that resulted in exceptional levels of ecological and morphological diversity. In this issue of M olecular E cology...

Generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to investigate the relationships between annual recruitment of natural coho salmon ( Oncorhynchus kisutch ) from Oregon coastal rivers and indices of the physical ocean environment. Nine indices were examined, ranging from large‐scale ocean indicators, e.g., Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), to indicators of the local ecosystem (e.g., coastal water temperature near Charleston, OR)....

To capture prey with suction, fish must get sufficiently close to their prey to allow the suction flow to overwhelm the prey and draw it into the mouth. Both swimming towards the prey and suction flow create a hydrodynamic disturbance, which can elicit an escape response by the prey. Using particle image velocimetry, we measured flow speeds and derived fluid deformation rates at the location of the prey as bluegill sunfish fed...