Comparing the pectoral girdle and fin morphology in frogfishes


SOCIETY FOR INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY
2021 VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING (VAM)
January 3 – Febuary 28, 2021

Meeting Abstract


P40-9  Sat Jan 2  Comparing the pectoral girdle and fin morphology in frogfishes Harb, S*; Sawicki, G; Amplo, HE; Flammang, BE; NJIT; Cornell University; Rutgers-Newark; NJIT/Rutgers hea7@njit.edu

Frogfishes (Family Antennariidae) are a group of primarily benthic predators capable of multiple modes of locomotion. Antennariidae is composed of two subfamilies, Antennariinae and Histiophryninae, and 52 species found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters. Antennariinae and Histiophryninae differ primarily in their distribution, with Antennariinae found circumglobally and Histiophryninae found in the Indo-Australian Archipelago, and their life history. Members of both subfamilies are primarily benthic but Histrio histrio in Antennariinae is exclusively found in floating sargassum seaweed. Frogfishes have enlarged pectoral fins with three elongated pectoral radials and a ball-and-socket joint shoulder which they use to walk, swim, and jet propulsion. However, while both subfamilies are benthic and primarily “walk” when moving around, H. histrio lives almost exclusively in floating seaweed and has been noted to primarily “grasp” the seaweed and jet propulse or swim. Has exploiting a non-benthic habitat changed H. histrio bone and joint morphology? We examined the bone and joint morphology in the pectoral girdle and fin for 10 species of frogfish using μCT scans of frogfish and 3D reconstruction techniques. Scans were either done by the authors using museum specimens from the ANSP or downloaded from Morphosource. We used 5 species from subfamily Antennariinae, including H. histrio, and 5 from subfamily Histiophryninae. All scan data was segmented and measured in Mimics 20.0 software. Despite drastic differences in habitat use, H. histrio has radials that are not significantly different in size or shape when compared to other members of subfamily Antennariinae. In addition, while there is a shape difference in the radials between the two subfamilies, preliminary analysis does not support them being significantly different from one another.

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