Abstract
Predation is ubiquitous in nature and can be an important component of both ecological and evolutionary interactions. One of the most striking features of predators is how often they cause evolutionary diversification in natural systems. Here, we review several ways that this can occur, exploring empirical evidence and suggesting promising areas for future work. We also introduce several papers recently accepted in Diversity that demonstrate just how important and varied predation can be as an agent of natural selection. We conclude that there is still much to be done in this field, especially in areas where multiple predator species prey upon common prey, in certain taxonomic groups where we still know very little, and in an overall effort to actually quantify mortality rates and the strength of natural selection in the wild.
Highlights
In the history of life, a key evolutionary innovation was the ability of some organisms to acquire energy and nutrients by killing and consuming other organisms [1,2,3]
Prey species have evolved a variety of traits to avoid predation, including traits to avoid detection [4,5,6], to escape from predators [4,7], to withstand harm from attack [4], to deter predators [4,8], and to confuse or deceive predators [4,8]
We know a great deal about the effects of predation on the evolution of prey traits [11,12,13], much less is known about how predators more generally drive evolutionary diversification at different biological scales, including diversification within populations, diversification among populations that can lead to the formation of new species, and even adaptive radiations that can give rise to multiple species
Summary
In the history of life, a key evolutionary innovation was the ability of some organisms to acquire energy and nutrients by killing and consuming other organisms [1,2,3]. We know a great deal about the effects of predation on the evolution of prey traits [11,12,13], much less is known about how predators more generally drive evolutionary diversification at different biological scales, including diversification within populations, diversification among populations that can lead to the formation of new species, and even adaptive radiations that can give rise to multiple species. In this Special Issue of Diversity, we present a variety of papers that shed light on this question. What should be clear in all of this is that predation can play a key role in shaping biological diversity
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