Geometric Morphometrics and Phylogeny of the Catfish Genus Mystus Scopoli (Siluriformes:Bagridae) and North American Cyprinids (Cypriniformes)
Geometric Morphometrics and Phylogeny of the Catfish genus Mystus Scopoli (Siluriformes:Bagridae) and North American Cyprinids (Cypriniformes) by Shobnom Ferdous A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 14, 2013 Copyright 2013 by Shobnom Ferdous Approved by Jonathan W. Armbruster, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University & Committee Chair Craig Guyer, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University Michael C. Wooten, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University Lawrence M. Page, Curator of Fishes, Florida Museum of Natural History Abstract Understanding the evolution of organismal form is a primary concern of comparative biology, and inferring the phylogenetic history of shape change is, therefore, a central concern. Shape is one of the most important and easily measured elements of phenotype, and shape is the result of the interaction of many, if not most, genes. The evolution of morphological traits may be tightly linked to the phylogeny of the group. Thus, it is important to test the phylogenetic dependence of traits to study the relationship between traits and phylogeny. My dissertation research has focused on the study of body shape evolution using geometric morphometrics and the ability of geometric morphometrics to infer or inform phylogeny. For this I have studied shape change in Mystus (Siluriformes: Bagridae) and North American cyprinids. Mystus Scopoli 1771 is a diverse catfish group within Bagridae with small- to medium-sized fishes. Out of the 44 nominal species worldwide, only 30 are considered to be part of Mystus. Mystus is distributed in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Vietnam, Sumatra, Java and Borneo.
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