Journal
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Volume 109, Issue 4, Pages 861-875Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/bij.12098
Keywords
axial skeleton; morphological evolution; pleomerism; size; vertebrae; vertebral aspect ratio
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Funding
- National Science Foundation Division of Integrative Organismal Systems [0819009]
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0819009] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Body shape and size are important axes of organismal diversification. The elongate body form has evolved repeatedly in disparate vertebrate clades, and is associated with a variety of maximum body lengths. We used a time-calibrated phylogeny for 40 species of moray eels to analyse the evolution of elongation and the morphological mechanisms underlying variation in body shape and maximum body length. We find that body elongation in morays evolves independently of elongation of the vertebral column. In contrast, maximum body length evolves by a different mechanism: through region-specific increases in vertebral number, elongation of individual vertebral centra, and postembryonic somatic growth. We reconstruct an ancestral moray eel and provide evidence for accelerated morphological evolution in three highly elongate species that are associated with a burrowing lifestyle. We compare these patterns with those described for other vertebrates, and show that body shape and body length may evolve independently of each other and (in the case of shape) of the vertebral column.(c) 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109, 861-875.
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