Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E104
Höfundar / Authors: Ruhila Goswami (1), Kenedy Annejulee Williams (1), Inés Eloidin (2), Guðbjörg Ósk Jónsdóttir (1), Arnar Pálsson (1)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. University of Iceland , 2. Université Paris-Est Créteil
Kynnir / Presenter: Ruhila Goswami
Dentition often correlates with feeding specialisation and evolves rapidly with diet in fishes. Divergence in tooth traits or numbers can relate to ecological separation, as dental variation may be adaptive and contribute to speciation. After the last Ice Age, newly formed lakes and rivers were recolonised by cold-adapted species like Salvelinus alpinus (Arctic-charr:AC), Salmo trutta (Brown trout:BT), Gasterosteus aculeatus (stickleback) and Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon) which adapted to new environments. Previous studies on tooth number variation in sympatric morphs of AC showed pelagic morphs generally have more teeth than benthic morphs. Allometry was the rule, except for premaxilla and glossohyal, and tooth counts differed by morphs in the dentary, vomer, and palatine. We aim to determine if these patterns are specific to AC or shared by other salmonids. We studied 186 fishes from 10 sites, testing whether tooth number and its allometric scaling with body size vary across bones within and between species. Our objectives: 1) Does BT have more or fewer teeth than AC and its morphs? 2) Which bones show the greatest divergence in tooth number between species? 3) Which AC morph most resembles BT in dental traits and allometry? Our research provides the first insight into dental adaptation and divergence in these salmonids, likely driven by ecological opportunity. We hope our findings reveal exciting aspects of fish adaptation and diversification in new environments.