DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Evolution of Specialized Teeth and Jaws in Early Mesozoic Ray-Finned Fishes and Their Impact on Widespread Niche Differentiation

论文研究：早期中生代射线鳍鱼类特化牙齿和颌的进化及其对广泛生态位分化的影响

• 批准号: 1502005
• 负责人: Hans-Peter Schultze
• 金额: $ 1.94万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1502005&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Evolution; Specialized; Teeth

The ray-finned fishes (e.g., trout, clownfish, seahorse, bass) are the most diverse group of vertebrates on Earth today and display a vast array of physical differences with regard to body shape, skull and jaw morphology, and tooth specializations. Ray-finned fishes have a long evolutionary history, and this study focuses on two extinct groups of fishes that lived during the Early Mesozoic (250-190 million years ago): the disc-shaped, deep-bodied dapediids and the torpedo-shaped, primitive redfieldiids. These two groups of fishes provide an ideal contrast (e.g., deep body versus narrow body, differences in jaws) for testing hypotheses of the impact of specialization of tooth and jaw anatomy and morphology. The researches will compare this body shape contrast with the diet, habitat preference, behavior, and niche specialization of the fish. The project will study fossils from the Early Mesozoic, a volatile time in Earth's history with global tectonic events changing the geography of the planet and shaping the diversity of organisms in different ecosystems. This research will increase our understanding of how these two groups of extinct fishes have adapted to occupy different ecological spaces and exploit different food sources. The research will utilize state-of-the-art two- and three-dimensional digital imaging techniques, such as micro-computed tomography (CT) scanning. These tools will measure jaw and cranial anatomy and morphology as well as tooth microwear, in well-preserved redfieldiid and dapediid fossils. Using these data the investigators of this project will be able to address hypotheses about how tooth and jaw morphology relate to ecological niche space and evolutionary history. This project will provide graduate and undergraduate training in morphological and morphometric techniques, and data obtained from this study will be catalogued in online data repositories.

鳍鱼（例如，鳟鱼，小丑鱼，海马，鲈鱼）是当今地球上最多样化的脊椎动物群体，在体型，头骨和颌骨形态以及牙齿特化方面显示出大量的物理差异。射线鳍鱼类有着悠久的进化历史，这项研究的重点是生活在中生代早期（2.5亿至1.9亿年前）的两个灭绝的鱼类群体：圆盘形，深体dapediids和鱼雷形，原始redfieldiids。这两组鱼提供了理想的对比（例如，深体与窄体，颌的差异），以检验牙齿和颌解剖和形态专门化影响的假设。 研究者将比较这种体型差异与鱼类的食性、栖息地偏好、行为和生态位特化。 该项目将研究中生代早期的化石，这是地球历史上的一个动荡时期，全球构造事件改变了地球的地理状况，并塑造了不同生态系统中生物的多样性。这项研究将增加我们对这两类灭绝鱼类如何适应不同的生态空间和利用不同食物来源的了解。这项研究将利用最先进的二维和三维数字成像技术，如微型计算机断层扫描（CT）扫描。 这些工具将测量保存完好的redfieldid和dapediid化石中的颌骨和颅骨解剖和形态以及牙齿微磨损。利用这些数据，该项目的研究人员将能够解决牙齿和颌骨形态如何与生态位空间和进化历史有关的假设。该项目将提供形态学和形态测量技术方面的研究生和本科生培训，从本研究中获得的数据将在在线数据库中编目。

项目成果

A new species of Lasalichthys (Actinopterygii, Redfieldiiformes) from the Upper Triassic Dockum Group of Howard County, Texas, with revisions to the genera Lasalichthys and Synorichthys

• DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1513009
• 发表时间: 2018-09
• 期刊: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
• 影响因子: 1.4
• 作者: Sarah Z. Gibson