Dissertation Research: Functional Patterns, Phylogenetic History, and Trophic Adaptation Within the Embiotocidae (Teleostei: Perciformes)

研究生杰弗瑞·詹森提出了一项研究，研究北太平洋近岸动物群中一个重要的生态组成部分——海洋感知动物家族Embiotocidae。该项目将确定该科物种之间的进化关系，并将记录进食结构的形态变化模式。这些功能变异将在它们的生态角色和进化历史的框架中得到解释。该研究对进化生物学和功能研究具有广泛的意义。通过结合功能、生态和进化数据，詹森先生将深入了解不同谱系之间的功能趋同，以及遗传对形态的限制。功能结构改变以适应其生态作用的难易程度是一个广泛的分类类群感兴趣的问题，该项目将代表一个值得注意的案例研究。

Graduate student Jeffrey Jensen proposes a study of the marine percifom family Embiotocidae, an ecologically important component of the North Pacific nearshore fauna. The project will determine the evolutionary relationships among species in the family, and will document patterns of morphological variation in feeding structures. These functional variations will then be interpreted in the framework of their ecological roles and evolutionary histories. The proposed study has broad implications for evolutionary biology and functional studies. By combining functional, ecological, and evolutionary data, Mr. Jensen will gain insight into functional convergence between separate lineages, and the constraints placed on morphology by inheritance. The ease with which functional structures have changed to suit their ecological roles is an issue of interest across a wide spectrum of taxonomic groups, and this project will represent a noteworthy case study.