Fig. 4: Trends in the evolution and proliferation of biofluorescence in teleost fishes and scleractinian coral species diversity over time.
From: Repeated and widespread evolution of biofluorescence in marine fishes
Fluorescence evolves at a faster rate in reef-associated teleosts compared to non-reef species, which is correlated with the rise of scleractinian coral species diversity in the early Eocene (~50 mya). The dashed line marks the K-Pg boundary21. The number of scleractinian coral species was based on data from the fossil record53. The number of reef-associated and non-reef biofluorescent lineages was based on the number of nodes over time, as determined by node ages of the teleost phylogeny and majority node likelihood of each character state.
