Meeting Abstract
Trophic divergence in cichlid fish is linked to shifts in pharyngeal jaw morphology. For instance, in the Heroine cichlids of Central America, the ability to crush hard-shelled mollusks is a convergent phenotype with multiple evolutionary origins. These durophagous species often have very similar pharyngeal jaw morphologies associated with the pharyngeal jaw apparatus and some of these similarities could be due to phenotypically plastic responses to mechanical stress. We examined the durophagous cichlid Vieja maculicauda for differences in pharyngeal osteology, dentition, and soft tissues when exposed to different diet regimes. Here we discuss the effect on the pharyngeal jaw of varying mechanical stress without varying nutrient content.
