Projecting mechanics into morphospace: disparity in the feeding system of labrid fishes

In no group of organisms has the link between species richness, morphological disparity, disparity in mechanics and functional or ecological diversification been made explicit. As a step towards integrating these measures of diversity, we examine how the mechanics of the anterior-jaw four-bar linkag...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2002-02, Vol.269 (1488), p.317-326
Main Authors: Hulsey, C. Darrin, Wainwright, Peter C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal morphology
Animals
Australia
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Bone fractures
Cubes
Eating - physiology
Ecology
Ecomorphology
Fish
Fish feeding
Fishes - anatomy & histology
Fishes - physiology
Four-Bar Linkage
Fracture mechanics
Functional Morphology
Jaw
Jaw - anatomy & histology
Jaw - physiology
Kinematics
Labridae
Logistic Models
Marine
Maxilla
Models, Biological
Pacific Ocean
Species diversity
Wrasse
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Summary:In no group of organisms has the link between species richness, morphological disparity, disparity in mechanics and functional or ecological diversification been made explicit. As a step towards integrating these measures of diversity, we examine how the mechanics of the anterior-jaw four-bar linkages of 104 species of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) labrid fishes maps into a scale-independent morphospace. As predicted from theory, no relationship exists between overall size and the mechanics of velocity and force transmission in labrid anterior-jaw linkages. Nonetheless, mechanics associated with the anterior jaw appear to have constrained diversification of labrid anterior-jaw morphology. Furthermore, simulations depict a generally nonlinear relationship between the length of individual links and transmission of motion. In addition, no relationship was found between morphological disparity and mechanical disparity among the most species-rich labrid groups from the GBR. It is also established that regions of morphospace equivalent in morphological disparity differ over nearly an order of magnitude in mechanical disparity. These results illustrate that without an explicit interpretation of the consequences of per unit change in morphology, conclusions about diversification drawn only from morphological disparity may be misleading.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2001.1874