Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-2017
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Major Professor
James A. Fordyce
Committee Members
Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick, Brian C. O'Meara, Elena D. Shpak
Abstract
Trophic divergence in cichlid fish is linked to morphological shifts in the pharyngeal jaw apparatus. For instance, in the Heroine cichlids of Central America, the ability to crush hard-shelled mollusks is a convergent phenotype with multiple evolutionary origins. These durophagous species often have very similar pharyngeal jaw morphologies associated with the pharyngeal jaw apparatus and some of these similarities could be due to phenotypically plastic responses to mechanical stress. I examined the durophagous cichlid Vieja maculicauda for differences in pharyngeal osteology, dentition, and soft tissues when exposed to different diet regimes. Here I discuss the effect on the morphology and gene expression of the pharyngeal jaw apparatus of varying mechanical stress without varying nutrient content, place this in a comparative framework, and discuss the effect of plasticity on morphological diversity.
Recommended Citation
Clemmensen, Sharon Fern, "Morphological and Gene Expression Plasticity in Neotropical Cichlid Fishes. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2017.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4767
Included in
Bioinformatics Commons, Evolution Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons