EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - Integrating genomic, morphological, and paleontological data to unravel macroevolutionary drivers of morphological diversity in fishes

This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Seminar Series.

About the seminar: Perhaps one of the most apparent, yet captivating, natural phenomena is the diversity of shape and form which has evolved on Earth. Morphological evolution is shaped by numerous factors across multiple biological scales, yet there is still much to be discovered using novel techniques and integrative approaches. By combining insights from phylogenetic comparative methods, paleoclimatic models, geometric morphometrics, and comparative transcriptomics, my dissertation research provides a multi-faceted approach to understanding the factors (ecological, environmental, and genetic) contributing to the evolution of body size and shape in fishes. In Chapter 1, I use paleoclimate data in conjunction with a newly inferred phylogeny based on both extant and fossil species to examine how past ocean temperature is correlated with body size in fishes, finding strong support for increasing body size over time in relation to decreasing oceanic temperatures. In Chapter 2, I utilize data from three-dimensional CT scans of both fossil and extant species to investigate widescale drivers of morphological evolution in relation to habitat and key innovations. I find that the evolution of the beak in tetraodontiform fishes (pufferfishes, ocean sunfishes, and allies) promotes rapid morphological evolution in the skull and may be a pivotal innovation that has enabled these fishes to expand into new ecological and dietary niches. Lastly, in Chapter 3, I employ comparative transcriptomics and differential expression analyses to investigate genetic convergence of body size reduction on a macroevolutionary scale and identify several candidate genes involved in miniaturization in goby fishes. Overall, my research provides new insights into the large-scale processes and dynamics which have shaped the evolution of morphological diversity.