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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5756-075X
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Organismic & Evolutionary Biology
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2019
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
In order to ascertain the degree of compatibility in developmental restructuring and behavioral plasticity between two fish species frequently made subject of laboratory research (Metriaclima zebra & Danio rerio), alternative trophic niche exposure experiments utilizing novel three-prong feeding treatments were conducted to obtain morphometric data, which demonstrated both species do bear some degree of plasticity. The results are somewhat complicated by differences in locality of detectable restructuring, which may be due to disparity in the form-function relationship for each species’ lineage. Each is notable in the manner of respective species’ jaw protrusion, as it is driven by anterior kinethmoid rotation in D. rerio. as opposed to force imparted upon the rostral cartilage of the premaxilla’s articular process in M zebra. Each is markedly distinct in the pharyngeal jaw as well, as zebrafish (also toothless at the oral jaw) bear teeth only on the lower set at the posterior of the mouth, while cichlids bear teeth on all jaws and additionally possess a unique, fused lower pharyngeal jaw. However, accounting for this difference in experimental models does allow for direct comparison, both at the morphological/behavioral and potentially the genetic level, though additional research is necessary. The evidence provided here also provides encouragement that more nuanced approaches to laboratory trophic niche exposure experiments could elucidate further evidence on the nature of phenotypic plasticity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/15171897
First Advisor
R. Craig Albertson
Second Advisor
Madelaine Bartlett
Third Advisor
Stephen D. McCormick
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Jockel, Dylan, "Patterns of Morphological Plasticity in Metriaclima zebra and Danio rerio Suggest Differently Canalized Phenotypes Due to Form-Function Relationships" (2019). Masters Theses. 837.
https://doi.org/10.7275/15171897
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/837
Included in
Animal Experimentation and Research Commons, Biodiversity Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Evolution Commons, Other Animal Sciences Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Genetics and Genomics Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons