Meeting Abstract

P1-75   -   The brave students did not kill dragons, they scanned them: 3D Morphometrics of stomiiform fishes Blythe, J; Em, I*; Kenaley, CP; Boston College cpkenaley@gmail.com http://kenaleylab.com

The Stommiiformes constitute an order of over 450 exclusively deep-sea fishes and represent the most diverse vertebrate group in Earth's largest biome. As residents of the dark and nutrient-poor mesopelagic and bathypelagic realms, the stomiiforms are studded with bioluminescent organs and possess feeding systems adapted for acquiring sparse prey resources. While the evolution of light organs in this group has received a substantial amount of scientific scrutiny and been identified as a rule for success in the deep sea, key shifts in feeding morphology have remain unstudied. This is despite the fact that there appears to be a dramatic transition in feeding ecology between the planktivorous basal stomiiforms and the macrophagous crown group members of the family Stomiidae (the dragonfishes). Here we present preliminary results of a 3D-morphometric study of the stomiiform skull based on micro-CT reconstructions. Our dataset includes 30 representatives of 50 stomiiform genera as well as 5 representatives of closely related shallow-dwelling neoteleost genera. From our comparative methods analysis, we show a distinct occupation of 3D morphospace by the macrophagous dragonfishes and an accelerated rate of morphological change associated with this shift in diet. These results elucidate the key changes in skull shape implicated in the feeding and evolutionary diversification of the Stomiiformes.