Ontogeny of the morphology-performance axis in an amphibious fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus)
Styga, J; Houslay, T; Wilson, A; et al.Earley, R
Date: 14 March 2018
Article
Journal
Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Comparative Experimental Biology
Publisher
Wiley
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Establishing links between morphology and performance is important for understanding the
functional, ecological, and evolutionary implications of morphological diversity. Relationships
between morphology and performance are expected to be age-dependent if, at different points
during ontogeny, animals must perform in different ...
Establishing links between morphology and performance is important for understanding the
functional, ecological, and evolutionary implications of morphological diversity. Relationships
between morphology and performance are expected to be age-dependent if, at different points
during ontogeny, animals must perform in different capacities to achieve high fitness returns.
Few studies have examined how the relationship between form and function changes across
ontogeny. Here, we assess this relationship in the amphibious mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias
marmoratus) fish, a species that is both capable of and reliant on “tail-flip jumping” for
terrestrial locomotion. Tail-flip jumping entails an individual transferring its weight to the caudal
region of the body, launching itself from the substrate to navigate to new aquatic or semi-aquatic
habitats. By combining repeated trials of jumping performance in 237 individuals from distinct
age classes with a clearing and staining procedure to visualize bones in the caudal region, we test
the hypotheses that as age increases: i) average jumping performance (body lengths jumped) will
increase, ii) the amount of variation for each trait will change, and iii) the patterns of
covariation/correlation among traits, which tell us about the integration of form with function,
will also change. We find a significant increase in size-adjusted jumping performance with age,
and modification to the correlation structure among traits across ontogeny. However, we also
find that significant links between form and function evident in young animals disappear at later
ontogenetic stages. Our study suggests that different functional mechanisms may be associated
with high performance at different stages of development.
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