Tracing evolutionary decoupling of oral and pharyngeal jaws in cichlid fishes.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary innovations can facilitate diversification if the novel trait enables a lineage to exploit new niches or by expanding character space. The elaborate pharyngeal jaw apparatus of cichlid fishes is often referred to as an evolutionary "key innovation" that has promoted the spectacular adaptive radiations in these fishes. This goes back to the idea that the structural and functional independence of the oral and pharyngeal jaws for food capturing and food processing, respectively, permitted each jaw type to follow independent evolutionary trajectories. This "evolutionary decoupling" is thought to have facilitated novel trait combinations and, hence, ecological specialization, ultimately allowing more species to coexist in sympatry. Here, we test the hypotheses of evolutionary decou

SUBMITTER: Ronco F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8645199 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature