DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Sound Production in Spiny Lobsters (Palinuridae): Morphological Constraints and the Evolution of Signal Diversity

生物使用多种信号进行交流，但对促成这种多样性的因素所知相对较少。解决这个问题的一种方法是研究参与信号产生的形态学如何影响这些信号随进化时间变化的方式。在通信系统的进化过程中，形态变化的限制（形态约束）很少得到解决，因为信号产生的形态通常太复杂而无法分析。有刺的龙虾（Palinuridae）提供了一个重要的模型系统，因为形态学和信号特征可以很容易地量化，因为在这一进化支的生物中存在显著的差异。本研究有两个具体目的：(1)构建刺龙虾的形态和分子系统发育的结合；(2)使用比较方法测试发声形态、周围触须形态和信号特征之间的相关性。这些研究的结果将用于检验形态学变异约束如何影响信号多样性的假设。通过对形态变化的限制如何导致信号多样性模式的理解，本研究将为通信系统结构和功能的变化提供新的见解。

Organisms communicate using a diversity of signals, but there is relatively little known of the factors that contribute to this diversity. One approach to addressing this question is to examine how the morphology involved in signal production may influence the way these signals can change over evolutionary time. Limits on morphological variation (morphological constraints) during the evolution of a communication system are rarely addressed because signal-producing morphology is often too complex to be analyzed. Spiny lobsters (Palinuridae) offer an important model system because both morphology and signal features can be easily quantified and because there is significant variation across this clade of organisms. This proposed research addresses two specific aims: (1) to construct a combined morphological and molecular phylogeny of the spiny lobsters and (2) to use comparative methods to test for correlations between sound-producing morphology, the surrounding antennal morphology and signal features. Results from these studies will be used to test hypotheses for how constraints on morphological variation influence signal diversity. Through an understanding of how constraints on morphological variation can lead to patterns of signal diversity, this research will offer novel insights into variation in the structure and function of communication systems.