Skip to main content
Dryad

Raw target enrichment of conserved element sequence data for 24 black coral species

Data files

Aug 25, 2023 version files 8.84 GB

Abstract

Deep-sea lineages are generally thought to arise from shallow-water ancestors, but this hypothesis is based on a relatively small number of taxonomic groups. Anthozoans, which include corals and sea anemones, are significant contributors to the faunal diversity of the deep sea, but the timing and mechanisms of their invasion into this biome remain elusive. Here, we reconstruct a fully resolved, time-calibrated phylogeny of 83 species in the order Antipatharia (black coral) to investigate their bathymetric evolutionary history. Our reconstruction indicates that extant black coral lineages first diversified in continental slope depths (~250–3,000 m) during the early Silurian (~437 Ma) and subsequently radiated into, and diversified within, both continental shelf (<250 m) and abyssal (>3,000 m) habitats. Ancestral state reconstruction analysis suggests that the appearance of morphological features that enhanced the ability of black corals to acquire nutrients coincided with their invasion of novel depths. Our findings have important conservation implications for anthozoan lineages, as the loss of “source” slope lineages could threaten millions of years of evolutionary history and confound future invasion events, thereby warranting protection.