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Developmental basis of phenotypic integration in two Lake Malawi cichlids

Overview of attention for article published in EvoDevo, January 2016
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  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (74th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (62nd percentile)

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Title
Developmental basis of phenotypic integration in two Lake Malawi cichlids
Published in
EvoDevo, January 2016
DOI 10.1186/s13227-016-0040-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Pierre Le Pabic, W. James Cooper, Thomas F. Schilling

Abstract

Cichlid fishes from the Rift Lakes of East Africa have undergone the most spectacular adaptive radiations in vertebrate history. Eco-morphological adaptations in lakes Victoria, Malawi and Tanganyika have resulted in a vast array of skull shapes and sizes, yet primary axes of morphological variation are conserved in all three radiations, prominently including the size of the preorbital region of the skull. This conserved pattern suggests that development may constrain the trajectories of cichlid head morphological evolution. Here, we (1) present a comparative analysis of adult head morphology in two sand-dweller cichlids from Lake Malawi with preorbital size differences representative of the main axis of variation among the three lakes and (2) analyze the ontogeny of shape and size differences by focusing on known developmental modules throughout the head. We find that (1) developmental differences between the two species correlate with known developmental modules; (2) differences in embryonic cartilage development result in phenotypically integrated changes among all bones derived from a single cartilage, while differences in dermal bone development tend to influence isolated regions within a bone; and lastly (3) species-specific morphologies appear in the embryo as subtle differences, which become progressively amplified throughout ontogeny. We propose that this amplification takes place at skeletal growth zones, the locations and shapes of which are patterned during embryogenesis. This study is the most anatomically comprehensive analysis of the developmental differences underlying cichlid skull evolution in the Rift Lakes of East Africa. The scale of our analysis reveals previously unnoticed correlations between developmental modules and patterns of phenotypic integration. We propose that the primary axes of morphological variation among East African cichlid adaptive radiations are constrained by the hierarchical modularity of the teleost head skeleton.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 34 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
France 1 3%
Brazil 1 3%
Unknown 32 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 35%
Student > Master 6 18%
Researcher 5 15%
Student > Bachelor 2 6%
Professor 1 3%
Other 3 9%
Unknown 5 15%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 19 56%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 18%
Environmental Science 1 3%
Neuroscience 1 3%
Unknown 7 21%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 March 2016.
All research outputs
#6,624,467
of 24,652,007 outputs
Outputs from EvoDevo
#166
of 328 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#100,848
of 404,839 outputs
Outputs of similar age from EvoDevo
#4
of 8 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,652,007 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 328 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.7. This one is in the 49th percentile – i.e., 49% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 404,839 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 8 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 4 of them.