Exploring the diversity and the evolution of colour patterns in reef fishes

Reef-associated teleosts are well-known for their astonishing diversity of colour patterns. Various works revealed that pigmentation patterns diverged rapidly and are under ecological and sexual selection. However, the geographical distribution of this diversity was never investigated and thorough comparative analyses among fish families are lacking. Here, we aim to compare the diversity and the evolution of colour patterns in four reef fish families: Acanthuridae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae and Lutjanidae. The colour patterns of species were described by a combination of binary traits translating the presence/absence of various markings (e.g. stripes, spots…), and then summarized using Principal Coordinates Analyses. Geographic data were recorded, and fish species were assigned to five main regions. We firstly observe that the diversity of colour patterns is similar and equally distributed among regions in every family. High divergence of patterns among species and a correlation between disparity and species richness support the hypothesis of a relationship between speciation and colour pattern, and suggest a crucial influence of colour patterns in species phenotypic differentiation. Secondly, we confirm the great evolvability of colour patterns. Finally, we reveal that a high level of colour pattern diversity was produced recently in major subclades of the fish families. Collectively our data highlights the importance of pigmentation patterns as a selective trait in reef fishes and plead for further works integrating ecology, evolutionary and developmental analyses.