Research in our lab resides at the intersection of genes, development and evolution. For reasons of experimental utility and evolutionary richness, our experimental model is the craniofacial skeleton in bony fishes. Broadly speaking, our approach is to integrate studies in a laboratory model (i.e., the zebrafish) and natural populations (e.g., cichlid fishes) to address two general research questions: What are the factors that contribute to jaw morphogenesis? And what are the factors that underlie patterns of natural variation in jaw shape? Ongoing research topics include: • Developmental and genetic bases of craniofacial diversity, integration and plasticity in cichlids. • Application of morphometric shape analyses to experimental studies of postembryonic craniofacial development in zebrafish. • Evolution of bone loss and craniofacial diversity in Antarctic icefishes.
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Constraint and opportunity: the genetic basis and evolution of modularity in the cichlid mandible (with E. Marquez and K. J. Parsons), The American Naturalist (2011)
Modular variation, whereby the relative degree of connectivity varies within a system, is thought to...
Modularity of the Oral Jaws Is Linked to Repeated Changes in the Craniofacial Shape of African Cichlids (with K. J. Parsons and W. J. Cooper), International Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2011)
The African cichlids of the East-African rift-lakes provide one of the most dramatic examples of...
Bentho-pelagic divergence of cichlid feeding architecture has been consistent and prodigious during multiple adaptive radiations within African rift-lakes (with W. J. cooper, K. J. Parsons, A. M. McIntyre, B. S. Kern, and A. C. McGee-Moore), PLoS One (2010)
How particular changes in functional morphology can repeatedly promote ecological diversification is an active area...
Evolution of a unique predatory feeding apparatus: functional anatomy, development and a genetic locus for jaw laterality in Lake Tanganyika scale-eating cichlids (with T. A. Stewart), BMC Biology (2010)
Background While bilaterality is a defining characteristic of triploblastic animals, several assemblages have managed to...
Molecular pedomorphism underlies craniofacial skeletal evolution in Antarctic notothenioid fishes (with Y-L Yan, T. A. Titus, E. Pisano, M. Vacchi, P. C. Yelick, W. H. Detrich, and J. H. Postlethwait), BMC Evolutionary Biology (2010)
Background Pedomorphism is the retention of ancestrally juvenile traits by adults in a descendant taxon....