Title: Evolution of Life-History Characteristics in Gadoidei

Date: Thursday, August 25th via Zoom at 8:30 AM Central Time (U.S. and Canada)

Project Description: Life-history characteristics (e.g., age and growth) have been used extensively to understand the temporal population dynamics of fish species, but less so within a phylogenetic framework. This study investigates if life-history characteristics within suborder Gadoidei (order: Gadiformes) and to test if such characteristics have phylogenetic signal. To accomplish this, a phylogeny of Gadoidei was first constructed based on both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Within this phylogenetic framework, life-history traits, including growth rates, age at maturity, and longevity, as well as ecological data, including water depth and diet type, were mapped to the phylogeny using parsimony analysis to examine the extent of phylogenetic signal. A phylomorphospace was constructed to determine an ancestral body plan for gadoid fishes, to explore possible convergences and divergences among the target groups, and how the morphological features relate to the life-history aspect of the study. Lastly, the life history characteristics were mapped onto the phylomorphospace in order to compare the body shape data to the life history data within a comprehensive phylogenetic framework. The results of both the parsimony analysis and morphometric analysis show support for the hypothesis that shared ancestry plays a role in the evolution of life-history traits.