Evolution of the Pharyngeal Jaw Apparatus in Ray-Finned Fishes

硬骨鱼类是种类最多的脊椎动物，其生态和进化的成功与捕食生物学的广泛多样性有关，而捕食和处理猎物的多种系统促进了这种多样性。本研究将阐明鳐鱼咽颚器的功能机制，咽颚器是在进食过程中操纵、咀嚼和运输猎物的主要装置。咽颚器官是一个鲜为人知的复杂系统，它由改良的腮弓肌肉和骨骼组成，在鱼类进化过程中已经进行了广泛的改良。利用肌肉活动的记录和一种新的方法来可视化颅骨内的骨骼运动，声纳超声，本研究将测试几种主要鱼类的咽颌功能模型，以建立颌作用的机制及其在最大的脊椎动物群体中的进化。本研究将解决关于咽颌器官的肌肉-骨骼连接系统如何运作的基本问题，以及它如何在进化过程中被修改以产生新的功能和多样性。该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.