Influence of Modularity and Regularity on Disparity of Atelostomata Sea Urchins
نویسندگان
چکیده
A modularity approach is used to study disparity rates and evolvability of sea urchins belonging to the Atelostomata superorder. For this purpose, the pentameric sea urchin architecture is partitioned into modular spatial components and the interference between modules is quantified using areas and a measurement of the regularity of the spatial partitions. This information is used to account for the variability through time (disparity) and potential for morphological variation and evolution (evolvability) in holasteroid echinoids. We obtain that regular partitions of the space produce modules with high modular integrity, whereas irregular partitions produce low modular integrity; the former ones are related with high morphological disparity (facilitation hypothesis). Our analysis also suggests that a pentameric body plan with low regularity rates in Atelostomata reflects a stronger modular integration among modules than within modules, which could favors bilaterality against radial symmetry. Our approach constitutes a theoretical platform to define and quantify spatial organization in partitions of the space that can be related to modules in a morphological analysis.
منابع مشابه
Eutacticity in sea urchin evolution.
An eutactic star, in a n-dimensional space, is a set of N vectors which can be viewed as the projection of N orthogonal vectors in a N-dimensional space. By adequately associating a star of vectors to a particular sea urchin, we propose that a measure of the eutacticity of the star constitutes a measure of the regularity of the sea urchin. Then, we study changes of regularity (eutacticity) in a...
متن کاملSea Urchin Recruitment: Effect of Substrate Selection on Juvenile Distribution
Intertidal field observations have shown that juvenile purple sea urchins Strongylocentwtus purpuratus are found in higher densities near adults . The same is true for subtidal populations of juvenile red sea urchins 5. franciscanus. These distribution patterns could be influenced by any of three elements: substrate selection, early juvenile mortality or juvenile migration. Using laboratory-rea...
متن کاملTrophic ecology of sea urchins in coral-rocky reef systems, Ecuador
Sea urchins are important grazers and influence reef development in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). Diadema mexicanum and Eucidaris thouarsii are the most important sea urchins on the Ecuadorian coastal reefs. This study provided a trophic scenario for these two species of echinoids in the coral-rocky reef bottoms of the Ecuadorian coast, using stable isotopes. We evaluated the relative pro...
متن کاملTrophic cascades result in large-scale coralline algae loss through differential grazer effects.
Removal of predators can have strong indirect effects on primary producers through trophic cascades. Crustose coralline algae (CCA) are major primary producers worldwide that may be influenced by predator removal through changes in grazer composition and biomass. CCA have been most widely studied in Caribbean and temperate reefs, where cover increases with increasing grazer biomass due to remov...
متن کامل