Interactions among multiple selective pressures on the form–function relationship in insular stream fishes

Abstract

Abstract Relationships between body shape and escape performance are well established for many species. However, organisms can face multiple selection pressures that might impose competing demands. Many fishes use fast starts for escaping predator attacks, whereas some species of gobiid fishes have evolved the ability to climb waterfalls out of predator-dense habitats. The ancestral ‘powerburst’ climbing mechanism uses lateral body undulations to move up waterfalls, whereas a derived ‘inching’ mechanism uses rectilinear locomotion. We examined whether fast-start performance is impacted by selection imposed from the new functional demands of climbing. We predicted that non-climbing species would show morphology and fast-start performance that facilitate predator evasion, because these fish live consistently with predators and are not constrained by the demands of climbing. We also predicted that, by using lateral undulations, powerburst climbers would show escape performance superior to that of inchers. We compared fast starts and body shape across six goby species. As predicted, non-climbing fish exhibited distinct morphology and responded more frequently to an attack stimulus than climbing species. Contrary to our predictions, we found no differences in escape performance among climbing styles. These results indicate that selection for a competing pressure need not limit the ability of prey to escape predator attacks.