Using phylogenetic comparative methods, I tested this prediction on the macroevolutionary scale across 347 teleost families, which display considerable variation in fin spines, body depth and width. However, only species with dorsal and anal fin spines have been used in common-garden experiments. I would therefore expect that the orientation of the spines will predict which body dimension increases in the presence of predators. These structures may evolve synergistically, as together, these traits will further enlarge the body dimensions of the fish that gape-limited predators must overcome. It is well known that predators can induce morphological changes in some fish: individuals exposed to predation cues increase body depth and the length of their fin spines. Integrative and Comparative Biology 59(3), 716-730.ĭid predation influence the evolution of fish body shape? 2019 Building a body shape morphospace of teleostean fishes. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of all these people and Sarah Friedman, Katherine Corn, Chris Martinez and Olivier Larouche in particular and of course my Co-PI Peter Wainwright!ġ) Price et al. It has involved a massive team of people from Clemson University and UC Davis, including 42 undergraduate researchers, 5 graduate students & lab techs and 2 postdocs. Combined with databases of biological, environmental and ecological and functional traits assembled from the scientific literature this teleost morphospace will enable me to quantitatively identify ecomorphs. Over the past three years we collected ecomorphological data on 6000+ species, including regions vital for swimming and prey-capture performance from museum specimens using 13 linear measurements on width, depth and fin spine length as well as lateral photos. Although ichthyological textbooks are richly illustrated with claims of adaptive morphological convergence, the nature of the relationship between fish shape and ecological (habitat-use, trophic niche), biological (modes of locomotion, feeding, defence) and environmental variables (salinity, water temperature, oxygen content) remain largely unknown at the macroevolutionary scale. It will bridge the gap between microevolutionary studies that demonstrate how body shape changes are induced by different ecologies intra-specifically, biomechanical models that express how certain shapes optimize specific performance traits and the remarkable diversity of forms observed across the teleost tree of life. This project aims to disentangle the ecological and environmental drivers of teleost body shape.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |