Dissertation Research: Systematics and Mechanisms of Jaw    Protrusion in Cheiline Wrasses (Family Labridae)
{'Code': '08010207', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'DEB', 'LongName': 'Division Of Environmental Biology'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'James E. Rodman', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
In this doctoral dissertation study Mark Westneat, working                 under the supervision of Dr. John Lundberg at Duke University,                  will study the evolution of feeding specializations in the                      cheiline wrasses, a group of fish species common in coral reef                  communities. Westneat has applied the concept of a four-bar-                    crank-chain model, borrowed from mechanical engineering, to the                 analysis of jaw structure and function in these fishes. Westneat                has developed a computer simulation of this model which he uses                 to analyze data derived from high speed cinematography of wrasses               feeding. A second parallel project is to reconstruct the                        evolutionary history of the group using modern cladistic methods.               Cladistic methods are numerical procedures that examine the                     distributions of traits (morphological, biochemical, etc.) among                the species; closely related species share more derived traits                  than do distantly related species. Cladistic procedures can be                  programmed into computers and the computers then used to                        reconstruct the evolutionary history of the group of species.                   Lundberg and Westneat will study the jaw specializations in many                species of wrasses against this backdrop of evolutionary history                to determine how the basic plan of the four-bar-crank-chain is                  modified by natural selection into many feeding specializations.                     This study melds modern technologies such as computer                      simulation, cladistic methods, high speed cinematography, etc.                  into a single study of the evolution of a complex system. Studies               of this nature serve as paradigms for understanding the evolution               of complex adaptations.
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{'Code': '1127', 'Text': 'Evolutionary Processes'}
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