Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42696564›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

The convergent evolution of the pelvic suction cup: A unique key innovation in spiny-finned fishes.

Emily P McFarland, Aline P M Medeiros, Carmen D R Pedraza-Marrón, Lily C Hughes, Stacy Pirro, Elizabeth C Santos, Aintzane Santaquiteria, William T White, Masaki Miya, Guillermo Ortí and 6 more

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Emily P McFarlandScripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9746-1609
Aline P M MedeirosScripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7272-4441
Carmen D R Pedraza-MarrónDepartment of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2692-4610
Lily C HughesDepartment of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, 2800 Faucette Boulevard, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4006-4036
Stacy PirroIridian Genomes Inc., 6213 Swords Way, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5642-4203
Elizabeth C SantosDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6856-3107
Aintzane SantaquiteriaDepartment of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, 2029 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
William T WhiteCSIRO Australian National Fish Collection, National Research Collections Australia, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-9705-2453
Masaki MiyaDepartment of Zoology, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chuo-ku, Chiba, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-9791-9886
Guillermo OrtíDepartment of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, 2029 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6886-2323
Thomas D LinleyMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand.ORCID 0000-0002-6583-3105
Carole C BaldwinNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20560, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2875-0474
James W OrrSchool of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, 1122 NE Boat St., Seattle, WA 98195, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6631-9087
Dahiana ArcilaScripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5126-1345
Luke M TornabeneSchool of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, 1122 NE Boat St., Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Ricardo Betancur-RScripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9512-5011

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Key innovations open ecological opportunities and can redirect evolutionary trajectories. In spiny-finned fishes, the pelvic suction cup-a fused adhesive structure formed from the pelvic fins and supported by a modified girdle-appears to be one such trait. Using a novel 960-species phylogeny spanning 940 exons and 67 newly sequenced snailfish genomes, we show that the suction cup evolved independently three times across lineages separated by over 100 million years. By enabling adhesion in high-energy habitats such as tide pools and waterfalls, the suction cup set the stage for body depression and accompanying shifts in scales, teeth, and clade-specific ecofunctional profiles. Comparative analyses reveal convergence in a distinctive region of morphospace and body-shape evolution accelerated two- to fivefold. Diversification analyses uncover heterogeneous but elevated rates, with a clear burst in rock-climbing gobies associated with suction cup evolution. By opening novel habitats and fostering phenotypic novelty, the suction cup emerges as a key innovation that reshaped spiny-finned fish evolution.

Indexed as

Animal FinsBiological EvolutionFishesAnimalsEcosystemEvolution, MolecularPhylogeny

Identifiers

PMID42696564
PMCPMC13544227

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.