Diet-morphology correlations in the radiation of South American geophagine cichlids (Perciformes: Cichlidae: Cichlinae).

ABSTRACT: Genera within the South American cichlid tribe Geophagini display specialized feeding and reproductive strategies, with some taxa specialized for both substrate-sifting and mouth brooding. Several lineages within the clade also possess an epibranchial lobe (EBL), a unique pharyngeal structure that has been proposed to have a function in feeding and/or mouth brooding. A recently published genus-level phylogeny of Neotropical cichlids was used as the evolutionary framework for investigating the evolution of morphological features presumably correlated with diet and mouth brooding in the tribe Geophagini. We tested for possible associations between the geophagine epibranchial lobe and benthic feeding and mouth brooding. We also addressed whether the EBL may be associated with unique patterns

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Fernandez H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3317448 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature