Dissertation Research: Feeding Ecomorphology of Crotaphytid Lizards: Illuminating Casuality Through Integration

唤醒9700914 生态形态学是一个分支学科，它产生于对有机体形态学和自然历史之间关系的兴趣。形态包括结构和功能。将这些水平的变化与整个生物体性能的变化联系起来，有助于揭示形态学和性能之间的因果关系。这一点，结合演示的重要性，在有机体生态或行为的性能指标，使生态形态学的推断更强大。这是一个建议，研究的单系科Crotaphytidae的食性生态形态。轮虫在摄食器结构、摄食行为和食性生态学方面表现出一定的趋势。咬合力是影响摄食行为和饮食生态学的重要性能变量。三个crotaphytid类群的摄食器的结构和功能分析将被用来构建计算机模型。这些模型将生成咬合力的预测，并通过咬合力测量进行测试。模型的模拟结构和功能扰动将有助于确定结构和功能变化与咬合力变化之间的因果关系。这种因果关系的识别联系形态学的研究，生态和行为，并最终促进生态形态学的进化进行严格的评估。

Wake 9700914 Ecomorphology is a sub-discipline that has emerged from interest in the relationship between organismal morphology and natural history. Morphology includes both structure and function. Relating variation at these levels to variation in whole-organism performance can help to reveal causality between morphology and performance. This, combined with demonstration of the importance of performance measures in organismal ecoloey or behavior, makes ecomorphological inference more robust. This is a proposal to study the feeding ecomorphology of the monophyletic lizard family Crotaphytidae. Crotaphytids show trends in feeding apparatus structure, feeding behavior, and dietary ecology. Bite force is an important performance variable influencing feeding behavior and dietary ecology. Structural and functional analyses of the feeding apparatus of three crotaphytid taxa will be used to construct computer models. These models will generate predictions of bite force that will be tested by bite-force measurement. Simulated structural and functional perturbations of the models will help to identify causality between structural and functional variation and biteforce variation. Identification of such causality links studies of morphology to ecology and behavior and, ultimately, facilitates rigorous evaluation of ecomorphological evolution.