Comparative Aspects of the Air-Breathing Transition in the Oxudercine Fishes

弹涂鱼属于弹涂鱼科的弹涂鱼亚科。包括弹涂鱼在内，有10属约25种。这个亚科有广泛的地理分布，从西非到萨摩亚，大多数物种生活在浅水、温暖、缺氧的热带地区。弹涂鱼（Periophthalmodon, Periophthalmodon， Boleophthalmus和Scartelaos）与其他水生动物的区别在于它们能够在水面上生活，头部暴露在空气中，甚至离开水，在空气中生活很长一段时间。弹涂鱼相应地适应了空气呼吸、陆地运动和空中视野，以及其他与离开水有关的专门技能。本研究将研究其中的一些适应，并试图了解它们获得的宏观进化序列，也就是说，在这个群体的扩张中，与空气暴露相关的适应出现了。这个序列很重要，因为，虽然目前关于陆地上脊椎动物进化的理论充满了细节，基于化石，关于伴随陆地入侵的结构变化，但在行为、感觉、生理和生化水平上发生的变化，我们知道的细节要少得多。由于奥克斯碱中含有从不离开水的物种和其他高度陆生的物种，这一组为陆地入侵的“起源”和“原因”提供了一个特殊的窗口。本研究将探讨与从水到陆地过渡相关的功能要素的性质，特别是获取空中氧气如何影响呼吸和代谢。从生态学的角度来看，弹涂鱼是在水和陆地之间开发一个开放的生态位，一个没有两栖动物的生态位。因此，PI为所有陆地动物的古代祖先如何从生活在浅水中过渡到生活在陆地上提供了线索。

Graham 9604699 The mudskipper fish are in the subfamily Oxudercinae of the family Goblidae. There are10 genera and about 25 species of oxudercines, including the mudskippers. This subfamily has a broad geographic range, from West Africa to Samoa, and most species live in shallow, warm, hypcxic tropical regions. The mudskippers (Periophthalmus, Periophthalmodon, Boleophthalmus, and Scartelaos) are distinguished from other oxudercines by their ability to live at the water surface, with their heads exposed to air, or to even leave water and live in the air for extended periods. Mudskippers accordingly have adaptations for air breathing, for terrestrial locomotion, and for aerial vision, as well as other specializations related to being out of water. This study will examine some of these adaptations and attempt to understand the macroevolutionary sequence of their acquisition, - - - that is to say, the point in the expansion of this group when adaptations related to air exposure appeared. This sequence is important to know because, while the current theory about the evolution of vertebrate life on land is replete with details, based on fossils, about the structural changes that accompanied the land invasion, much less detail is known about the changes that occurred at the behavioral, sensory, physiological and biochemical levels. Because the oxudercines contains species that never leave water and others that are highly terrestrial, this group provide a special window to the "bows" and "whys" of terrestrial invasion. This study will investigate the nature of the functional elements related to the transition from water to land, in particular, how access to aerial oxygen affected breathing and metabolism. The mudskippers, in an ecological sense, are exploiting an open ecological niche between water and land, one that was not filled by amphibians. The PI thus provide clues as to how ancient ancestors of ail land animals may have made the transition from living in shallow-water to living on land.