#26: Insights into the Sequence of Eye Position and Shape and Prosoma Shape Changes in Eurypterus remipes (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) Using Cladistic Ontogeny — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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#26: Insights into the Sequence of Eye Position and Shape and Prosoma Shape Changes in Eurypterus remipes (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) Using Cladistic Ontogeny

Name: Maverick Leer
Major: Biology
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: SURE
Funding: SURE

Abstract

The phylogeny of eurypterids identifies sister group relationships, but not the developmental cause of the synapomorphies. The comparison of growth series between sister taxa has the potential to uncover how changes in growth series resulted in evolutionary novelties (=synapomorphies). Eurypterids are a model clade for this type of work because they are diverse, have a well resolved phylogeny, occur over a 155 million-year time span, and there are many species that have a large sample size with growth series.

The main objective of this study was to recover the growth series of E. remipes. The secondary goals were to obtain descriptive statistics of prosoma length and width, and do a Spearman rank test of the correlation between size and maturity. It was hypothesized that growth and maturity will be correlated.

This study was done to recover a character-based quantitative growth series for Eurypterus remipes using cladistic methods, an approach that has not previously been done for this taxon. Previous ontogenetic studies of E. remipes have focused on size or character changes separately, but a cladistic approach can bring qualitative and quantitative categories of data together in a single analysis that can simultaneously account for both sets of changes.

A growth series was recovered with 9 growth stages, identifiable by changes to the shape and size of the head and eyes, primarily. The Spearman test also showed that size and maturity are correlated.

Based on this foundation, the next steps are to recover the growth series of its closest relatives, using cladistic analysis, starting with its sister species Eurypterus tetragonophthalmus.

Poster file