Date of Degree
2010
Document Type
thesis
Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Department
Geoscience
First Advisor
Ann F. Budd
Abstract
In this study, the corallite shapes of three species of the scleractinian genus Undaria from the Yague group, Dominican Republic, were examined through a period of time stretching from 6.4 mya to 3.4 mya, a total of 3.0 ma. Corallite shape was measured using 3 dimensional landmarks and manipulated using the well established procedures of geometric morphometrics. Differences in shape and size through time were examined using a variety of tools, including canonical variates analysis, principal components analysis, least squares regression, partial least squares regression, and a variety of evolutionary model fits. Evolutionary model fits were used to test three models against the shape and size variables: general random walk, which models a directional change through time; unbiased random walk, which models random change through time; and stasis, which models stability through time. Stasis is the most common parameter through time, supported in 9 of 15 (60%) of cases, while the unbiased random walk was supported 6 of 15 times. While there was a significant change in one species associated with environmental variables, those variables were also correlated with time and no causal relationship can be reached.
Pages
vi, 45
Bibliography
43-45
Copyright
Copyright 2010 Kristopher J S Rhodes
Recommended Citation
Rhodes, Kristopher J S. "Evolution Of shape morphologic variation of the genus Undaria (Scleractinia, Agariciidae)." thesis, University of Iowa, 2010.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/586.
Supplemental Data