Evolution of the Pharyngeal Jaw Apparatus in Ray-Finned Fishes

硬骨鱼是脊椎动物中最特殊的一类，其生态和进化的成功与摄食生物学的广泛多样性有关，而多种多样的猎物捕获和处理系统促进了这种多样性。这项研究将阐明鳍鱼咽颌器的功能机制，鳍鱼是在摄食过程中操纵、咀嚼和运输猎物的主要装置。咽颌器是一个知之甚少的复杂系统，由改良的颧弓肌肉和骨骼组成，在鱼类进化过程中没有进行广泛的改造。利用肌肉活动的记录和一种显示颅骨内骨骼运动的新方法--声学超声，这项研究将测试几个主要鱼类群体的咽颌功能模型，以建立在最大的脊椎动物群体中颌骨活动及其进化的机制。这项研究将解决有关咽颌器的肌肉-骨骼连接系统如何发挥作用，以及它在进化过程中如何被修改以产生新的功能和摄食生物学多样性的基本问题。这一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.