Dissertation Research

Full dissertation

Cichlid fishes are an exceptionally species rich and trophically diverse clade of teleosts that have also been suggested to be unusually phenotypically plastic. Cichlids, like many fish, have both oral and pharyngeal jaws formed from modified gill arches. Morphological diversity in the pharyngeal jaw permits cichlids to specialize on a range of diets. Modification of the pharyngeal jaws has also been suggested to act as a key innovation that lead to the rapid diversification of cichlids. Morphological plasticity in the pharyngeal jaw has also been identified in several species. This plasticity has often been attributed to durophagy – eating hard-shelled organisms – a habit that has independently evolved a large number of times in cichlids. Durophagy is a functional trait that has many linked underlying morphological components. There are common mechanical stresses for prey processing that provide relatively straightforward predictions of structural demands made on the many parts of the pharyngeal jaw structure. The intersection of trophic diversification and morphological plasticity in cichlids makes this group particularly suited to addressing macroevolutionary questions concerning plasticity. see lab website