Mark W. Westneat

New Results Charlene L. McCord, Chloe M. Nash, W. James Cooper, View ORCID ProfileMark W. Westneat doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430149 Abstract The damselfishes (family Pomacentridae) inhabit near-shore communities in tropical and temperature oceans as one of the major lineages in coral reef fish assemblages. Our understanding of their evolutionary ecology, morphology and function has often been advanced by increasingly detailed and accurate molecular phylogenies.

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This paper provides an analysis of the correlated evolution of limb biomechanics and mechanosensation. We found that in multiple independent evolutions of stiff fins there was concurrent evolution of increased mechanosensory afferent sensitivity to low amplitude bends, compared with the nerve responses of more flexible fins.