The Evolution of Feeding Mechanisms in Vertebrates

SICB 2007 Symposium

Phoenix, Arizona
January 3 – 7, 2007

The Evolution of Feeding Mechanisms in Vertebrates

Organized by Timothy Higham and Peter Wainwright

Symposium Abstract:

This symposium will
examine the diversity of feeding mechanisms in most of the major
vertebrate groups including bony fishes, cartilaginous fishes,
amphibians, snakes, lizards, mammals, dinosaurs, birds and bats.
Unifying concepts to be addressed include the evolutionary trends,
innovations and patterns of diversity that characterize each of these
major groups as well as transformations between groups. Several
questions will be addressed from this symposium, such as whether the
major axes of diversity in feeding functional morphology are similar
across the major vertebrate groups. It is possible that several
groups of vertebrates include species that have exploited similar
resources, thus exhibiting comparable trends in morphological
diversity. If this is not the case, then what factors could be
contributing to these differences? Are these groups of similar age?
Could limitations of body plan design be inhibiting diversification
within some groups? Alternatively, can innovations be identified
that permitted breakthroughs in patterns of diversification? In
addition to the taxon-specific contributions, this symposium will
address the evolutionary relationships between locomotion and feeding
and the influences of mechanical and material properties on the
evolution of feeding diversity. Ultimately we hope that the
symposium will produce a synthesis of major patterns and repeating
themes in vertebrate trophic diversity, the nature of innovation and
possible constraints on feeding mechanism evolution.

Sources of Support:

The Division of Vertebrate Morphology (http://www.sicb.org/divisions/dvm.php3 )

The Company of Biologists (on behalf of The Journal of Experimental Biology)
(http://jeb.biologists.org/)

Fastec Imaging (http://www.fastecimaging.com/)

Speakers
and Topics:

Mason Dean and Adam Summers
(University of California, Irvine): “Feeding mechanisms in skates and rays”
http://grad.bio.uci.edu/ecoevo/mdean/

Stephen Deban
(University of South Florida): “Feeding mechanisms in amphibians”
http://autodax.net/

Elizabeth Dumont
(University of Massachusetts, Amherst): “Feeding mechanisms in bats”
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/dumont/betsy.php

Anthony Herrel
(University of Antwerp, Belgium): “The
evolution of cranial design and performance in lepidosaurians:
consequences of skull bone reduction on feeding behavior”

http://webhost.ua.ac.be/funmorph/anthony/

Timothy Higham
(Harvard University): “The evolution of locomotion during feeding”
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~thigham/

Nate Kley (Stony Brook University): Feeding mechanisms in snakes
http://gibbon.anat.sunysb.edu/kleylab/

Callum Ross
(University of Chicago): “The evolution of mechanical properties during feeding”
http://pondside.uchicago.edu/oba/faculty/ross_c.html

Margaret Rubega
(University of Connecticut): “Feeding mechanisms in birds”
http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/faculty/rubega/Rubega.htm

Blaire Van Valkenburgh
(University of California, Los Angeles): “Evolution
of Feeding Morphologies in the Carnivora

http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/indivfaculty.php?FacultyKey=1620

Peter Wainwright
(University of California, Davis): “Feeding mechanisms in bony fishes”
http://www.eve.ucdavis.edu/~wainwrightlab/

Cheryl Wilga
(University of Rhode Island), Philip Motta (University of
South Florida), Christopher Sanford: “Feeding mechanisms in cartilaginous fishes”
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/bio/wilga/
(Cheryl)
http://luna.cas.usf.edu/%7Emotta/
(Philip)

the Society for
Integrative &
Comparative
Biology