Meeting Abstract
Neoteleosts exhibit tremendous diversity in morphology and behavior that often closely matches their adaptation to a particular feeding niche. For instance, benthic fish that pluck or scrape food items off the substrate tend to differ in consistent and predictable ways from pelagic fish that hunt food items suspended in the water column. Many fish radiations vary along this benthopelagic axis of diet, behavior, and morphology. While conspicuous differences occur in the head and trophic structures, significant changes in body shape and fin structure can also be found, which likely evolve in response to distinct locomotive demands associated with different foraging tactics. The highly speciose radiation of African cichlids have rapidly and repeatedly diverged along this major ecomorphological axis. Here we characterize natural variation of fin morphology found within two ecologically similar species of African cichlid, Labeotropheus fuelleborni (LF) and Tropheops sp. ‘red cheek’ (TRC). Notably we find that even between these close ecological competitors, variation in fin morphology is similar to that among major lineages. We also describe variation within a population of LF x TRC hybrids, and use that population to perform a quantitative trait loci analysis seeking the genetic factors that influence fin shape and its underlying musculature. Our work seeks to better understand the fundamental interplay between genetics, diet, and morphology, as well as its role in this adaptive radiation.
