Work Description

Title: Neotropical Cichlid Pharyngeal meshes Embargo Deposited

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Embargo release date
  • 11/27/2025
Attribute Value
Methodology
  • Cichlid specimens were µCT scanned at the RMC UMMZ scanner. Specimens were reconstructed and digitally segmented in Dragonfly ORS (multiple versions). The Pharyngeal jaw, neurocranium (ventral margin), and urohyal were converted into STL's in dragonfly.
Description
  • Understanding how continental assemblages have diversified can be difficult as they are products of extinction, biogeographic rearrangements, and changing environments over millions of years. Much of our knowledge of adaptive radiations stems from relatively recent, insular-like systems. However, increasing evidence supports the idea that adaptive radiations have a major role in hyper diverse continental radiations like Neotropical cichlids. This primarily riverine group has undergone adaptive diversification in many into ecologically, morphologically, and behaviorally complex lineages. Surprisingly, the macroevolutionary patterns of the entire pharyngeal jaw is relatively understudied in Neotropical cichlids. In this study we use µCT scans to characterize the entire pharyngeal system across Neotropical cichlids to test for signatures of adaptive radiation. We describe the morphological diversity of the upper and lower pharyngeal jaw, fit models of evolutionary divergence, and measure morphological disparity through time and among clades. Until now, studies of various axes of diversification in Cichlinae found a congruent signals an early bursts of divergence in multiple trait dimensions, however we find no evidence of an early burst in the pharyngeal jaws. We find evidence of highly specialized pharyngeal jaws establishing early in the continental radiation and also evidence of recent morphological divergence in the three major tribes of Cichlinae. Our results further highlight the necessity to study adaptively radiating lineages in multiple trait dimensions as some axes of diversification may be overlooked.

  • There are 285 STL files containing from 95 species Neotropical Cichlids (subfamily Cichlinae). Each species has a corresponding mesh for the urohyal, pharyngeal jaw (PJ), and neruocranium. Files are named: Genus Species Museum Identifier Museum number and the anatomy. For example "Acaronia nassa ummz 66426 Neurocranium"

  • There is a landmarked dataset linked to these meshes (see below). The landmarks were placed on the meshes found within this dataset and used for Nicholas and López-Fernández 2024.
Creator
Depositor
Contact information
  • nicholbe@umich
Discipline
Keyword
Date coverage
  • 2020 to 2024
Citations to related material
  • Nicholas, B, López-Fernández, H. 2024. Analysis of the whole pharyngeal jaws add nuance to the continental radiation of Neotropical cichlids. Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society
Related items in Deep Blue Documents
Resource type
Last modified
  • 04/01/2025
Published
  • 04/01/2025
DOI
  • https://doi.org/10.7302/874s-1c31
License

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