A vibrant blue cichlid fish with iridescent scales swims in a freshwater aquarium, surrounded by green aquatic plants against a turquoise background.
The cichlid fish of Africa's Great Lakes have formed new species more rapidly than any other group of vertebrates. A new study shows that the ease with which these fish can develop a biological innovation (complex teeth), not just the innovation itself, enables this rapid evolution. (Photo of Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus, native to Lake Malawi, Getty Images)

Fish Teeth Show How Ease of Innovation Enables Rapid Evolution

  • by Andy Fell

It’s not what you do, it’s how readily you do it. Rapid evolutionary change might have more to do with how easily a key innovation can be gained or lost rather than with the innovation itself, according to new work by biologists at the University of California, Davis, who studied how teeth in certain fishes evolved in response to food sources and habitats.

Their work was published Feb. 26 in Nature.

“This changes the way we think about key innovations,” said Nick Peoples, first author of the paper and a graduate student working with Professor Peter Wainwright at the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology. 

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