Fish Teeth Show How Ease of Innovation Enables Rapid Evolution (IMAGE)

University of California - Davis

Fish Teeth Show How Ease of Innovation Enables Rapid Evolution

Caption

Complex teeth with multiple cusps in an African cichlid fish. 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.

Credit

Nick Peoples, UC Davis.

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