Phenotypic integration of brain size and head morphology in Lake Tanganyika Cichlids

[Background] Phenotypic integration among different anatomical parts of the head is a common phenomenon across vertebrates. Interestingly, despite centuries of research into the factors that contribute to the existing variation in brain size among vertebrates, little is known about the role of pheno...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Tsuboi, Masahito, González-Voyer, Alejandro, Kolm, N.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/94933
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/94933
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Phenotypic integration
Geometric morphometrics
Phylogenetic comparative analysis
Lake Tanganyika cichlid
Brain evolution
Constraints
Descripción
Sumario:[Background] Phenotypic integration among different anatomical parts of the head is a common phenomenon across vertebrates. Interestingly, despite centuries of research into the factors that contribute to the existing variation in brain size among vertebrates, little is known about the role of phenotypic integration in brain size diversification. Here we used geometric morphometrics on the morphologically diverse Tanganyikan cichlids to investigate phenotypic integration across key morphological aspects of the head. Then, while taking the effect of shared ancestry into account, we tested if head shape was associated with brain size while controlling for the potentially confounding effect of feeding strategy.