Ecomorfologia y evolucion del sistema locomotor de la familia Pomacentridae

Due their productivity, structural diversity, and potential to promote ecological, functional and morphological evolution, coral reefs have the highest species richness of fishes. As swimming is the primary form of locomotion and interaction their aquatic environment, small morphological variations can have profound implications on the fitness of fishes. The damselfish family, Pomacentridae, has inhabited coral reef ecosystems for more than 50 million years. As such, habitat preferences and behavior could significantly contribute to the evolution of the morphology of damselfish through the impacts of shape on locomotion. To test this hypothesis, we employed comparative morphometric analyses of fish shape and ecology. While body elongation represented the primary source of variation in locomotor system shape, results also showed a diverse suit of morphological combinations in between the morphological extremes. Results showed strong associations between behavior and habitat preferences, suggesting that behavior may constrain the shape of the locomotor system in damselfishes. Position in the water column show relation with the cephalic region and truck, behavior is related to the cephalic angle and the angle of insertion of the pectoral fin, while maximum depth is related to the caudal peduncle. Was found little relation between the caudal peduncle, the angle of pectoral fin attachment and the rest modules, therefore, this two modules may be the main responsible of swimming fitness in damselfishes. Finally, cephalic region is highly related to most modules, especially to trunk. This strong integration may be responsible of the limit morphological variation of damselfishes.