Meeting Abstract

43-6  Tuesday, Jan. 5 09:15  Replicated divergence in cichlid radiations mirrors a major vertebrate innovation MCGEE, MD*; FAIRCLOTH, BC; BORSTEIN, SR; ZHENG, J; HULSEY, CD; WAINWRIGHT, PC; ALFARO, ME; Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern; Department of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University; Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz; Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles mcgee.matthew@gmail.com

Decoupling of the upper jaw bones – jaw kinesis – is a distinctive feature of the ray-finned fishes, but it is not clear how the innovation is related to the extraordinary diversity of feeding behaviors and feeding ecology in this group. We address this issue in a lineage of ray-finned fishes that is well-known for its ecological and functional diversity – African rift lake cichlids. We sequenced ultraconserved elements to generate a phylogenomic tree of the Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi cichlid radiations. We filmed a diverse array of over fifty cichlid species capturing live prey and quantified the extent of jaw kinesis in the premaxillary and maxillary bones. Our combination of phylogenomic and kinematic data reveals a strong association between biting modes of feeding and reduced jaw kinesis, suggesting that the contrasting demands of biting and suction feeding have strongly influenced cranial evolution in both cichlid radiations.