Comparative Aspects of the Air-Breathing Transition in the Oxudercine Fishes

格雷厄姆9604699是一种弹涂鱼，属于牛鱼科的牛鱼亚科。包括弹涂鱼在内，共有10属约25种。这个亚科的地理范围很广，从西非到萨摩亚，大多数物种生活在浅水、温暖、潮湿的热带地区。弹涂鱼(眼周、眼周、弹眼鱼和Scartelaos)与其他牛嘴鱼的不同之处在于，它们能够生活在水面上，头部暴露在空气中，甚至能够离开水，在空气中生活较长时间。因此，弹涂鱼适应空气呼吸、陆地运动和空中视觉，以及其他与离开水有关的专门化。这项研究将考察其中的一些适应，并试图了解它们获得的宏观进化序列---也就是说，当与空气暴露相关的适应出现时，这一群体的扩张点。了解这一序列很重要，因为尽管目前关于陆地上脊椎动物生命进化的理论充满了以化石为基础的关于伴随着陆地入侵而发生的结构变化的细节，但关于行为、感觉、生理和生化水平发生的变化的细节要少得多。由于草珊瑚包含永远不会离开水的物种和其他高度陆生的物种，这一组提供了一个特殊的窗口，可以了解陆地入侵的“弓”和“为什么”。这项研究将调查与从水到陆地过渡有关的功能元素的性质，特别是获得空气中的氧气如何影响呼吸和新陈代谢。从生态意义上讲，弹涂鱼正在开发水和陆地之间的一个开放的生态位，这个生态位没有被两栖动物填满。因此，PI为陆地动物的远古祖先可能如何从生活在浅水中过渡到生活在陆地上提供了线索。

Graham 9604699 The mudskipper fish are in the subfamily Oxudercinae of the family Goblidae. There are10 genera and about 25 species of oxudercines, including the mudskippers. This subfamily has a broad geographic range, from West Africa to Samoa, and most species live in shallow, warm, hypcxic tropical regions. The mudskippers (Periophthalmus, Periophthalmodon, Boleophthalmus, and Scartelaos) are distinguished from other oxudercines by their ability to live at the water surface, with their heads exposed to air, or to even leave water and live in the air for extended periods. Mudskippers accordingly have adaptations for air breathing, for terrestrial locomotion, and for aerial vision, as well as other specializations related to being out of water. This study will examine some of these adaptations and attempt to understand the macroevolutionary sequence of their acquisition, - - - that is to say, the point in the expansion of this group when adaptations related to air exposure appeared. This sequence is important to know because, while the current theory about the evolution of vertebrate life on land is replete with details, based on fossils, about the structural changes that accompanied the land invasion, much less detail is known about the changes that occurred at the behavioral, sensory, physiological and biochemical levels. Because the oxudercines contains species that never leave water and others that are highly terrestrial, this group provide a special window to the "bows" and "whys" of terrestrial invasion. This study will investigate the nature of the functional elements related to the transition from water to land, in particular, how access to aerial oxygen affected breathing and metabolism. The mudskippers, in an ecological sense, are exploiting an open ecological niche between water and land, one that was not filled by amphibians. The PI thus provide clues as to how ancient ancestors of ail land animals may have made the transition from living in shallow-water to living on land.