Titan Triggerfish

Titan triggerfish are the sea otters of tropical coral reefs: keystone predators that control urchin populations. Their powerful jaws crush sea urchins, maintaining the balance between grazers and coral. Without triggerfish and other urchin predators, tropical reefs face similar dynamics to temperate kelp forests—urchin explosions that can denude reef surfaces.

The triggerfish case shows that keystone predation is a convergent strategy: it evolves independently wherever ecosystems face similar problems. Kelp forests and coral reefs are completely different systems, but both produced urchin predators whose removal triggers similar cascades. The specific predator doesn't matter; the function matters.

The business parallel is convergent regulatory roles across different markets. Triggerfish are like antitrust enforcers, quality certifiers, or platform moderators—roles that emerge wherever extractive intermediaries might otherwise overwhelm productive activity. Different markets produce functionally similar controllers because the underlying problem (unchecked extraction destroying productive capacity) is universal. Understanding the function rather than the specific form helps recognize keystone roles in unfamiliar systems.