Evolution of the Pharyngeal Jaw Apparatus in Ray-Finned Fishes

硬骨鱼是脊椎动物中最具物种多样性的类群，其生态和进化上的成功与摄食生物学的广泛多样性有关，而摄食生物学的广泛多样性是由多功能的猎物捕获和加工系统促成的。 本研究将阐明鳍鱼咽颚器的功能机制，咽颚器是鳍鱼在摄食过程中操纵、咀嚼和运输猎物的主要装置。 咽颚器是一个知之甚少的，复杂的系统修改鳃弓肌肉和骨骼，在鱼类进化过程中进行了广泛的修改。 利用肌肉活动的记录和一种新的方法，用于可视化骨骼运动的头骨内，声测超声，这项研究将测试模型的咽颌功能在几个主要群体的鱼类，以建立颌骨行动的机制和它的进化在最大的一组活的脊椎动物。 这项研究将解决有关咽颌器官的肌肉骨骼连接系统如何发挥作用的基本问题，以及它在进化过程中如何被修改以产生新的功能和多样性。 这个系统的复杂性和多样性将为揭示神经肌肉进化的一般原理提供原材料。

The ecological and evolutionary success of bony fishes, the most speciose group of vertebrates, is associated with extensive diversity in feeding biology that is facilitated by versatile systems of prey capture and processing. This research will elucidate mechanisms of function in the pharyngeal jaw apparatus of ray-finned fishes, the primary device used in manipulating, chewing, and transporting prey during feeding. The pharyngeal jaw apparatus is a poorly understood, complex system of modified gill-arch muscles and bones that has underdone extensive modification during fish evolution. Using recordings of muscle activity and a new method for visualizing skeletal motion inside the skull, sonometric-ultrasound, this research will test models of pharyngeal jaw function in several major groups of fishes in order to establish the mechanisms of jaw action and its evolution within the largest group of living vertebrates. This research will address basic questions about how the muscle-skeleton linkage system of the pharyngeal jaw apparatus functions, and how it has been modified during evolution to produce novel function and diversity in feeding biology. The complexity and diversity of this system will provide the raw material for exposing general principles of neuromuscular evolution.