Meeting Abstract

P1.132  Wednesday, Jan. 4  Jumping in the Trinidadian guppy SOARES, Daphne; Univ of Maryland College Park daphne.soares@gmail.com

Many fishes are able to jump out of the water and launch themselves into flight. Often such behavior is associated with prey capture, migration or predator avoidance. Here I study the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) which has rapidly evolved in response to environmental pressures and is a well established animal model for the study of ecology and evolutionary biology. This live bearing fish are common in the northern range mountains of Trinidad and are endemic to various streams that vary in ecological characteristics. Crispo et al (2006) argue that geography had substantial effects on guppy genetic structure and that waterfalls substantially reduced gene flow. Fishes from the lower parts of the streams have more allelic diversity than upstream and are believed to be the original population. Downstream guppies have repeatedly and independently colonized and adapted to upstream environments resulting in parallel, rapid changes in life history traits, behaviour and morphology. Dispersal in guppies is partially constrained by geological features but is under strong drive due to high predation in the lowlands. Here I describe the jumping kinematics in the guppy. I take advantage of the well described ecology and evolutionary history of guppies, and suggest possible roles of the jumping behavior in dispersal.