DAILY NEXUS (University of California, Santa Barbara) — On Monday, Oct. 28, Todd Oakley’s lab invited Matt Davis to speak on his research into the evolution of ray-finned fishes in the deep sea.
The seminar, “Evolution in the Dark: Habitat Transitions and Adaptations in Deep-Sea Fishes,” held in the UCSB Marine Science Institute Auditorium, focused on the interspecies variation found in ray-finned fishes within the pelagic zone.
Davis, an associate professor of biology at St. Cloud State University, began with an overview of the varietal taxa of ray-finned fishes found in the deep sea before delving more specifically into the traits which characterize them.
He made note of the degree of convergent traits observed in deep-sea fishes, namely enlarged dentition and bioluminescence, which have evolved independently in several different lineages.
Read more: Convergent evolution in deep-sea fish
