| 要旨トップ | 目次 | | 日本生態学会第68回全国大会 (2021年3月、岡山) 講演要旨 ESJ68 Abstract |
一般講演(口頭発表) G03-01 (Oral presentation)
Morphologies that animals use to interact with their environment diversify and adapt to different ecological settings. A prime example of such a tool is the ant mandible. Some ant mandibles have evolved to act as scissors, mouse traps, etc. on top of being used to forage and manipulate nest and colony. However, it is unclear whether specialized forms fall into distinct types. It is an open question to what extent morphological and functional characteristics evolved convergently among ant clades. Therefore, I quantify mandible form through statistical shape analysis based on 3D micro-CT. I further digitally calculate mechanical parameters to estimate function with regards to ecological observations, such as foraging and predation behavior. Initial results suggest that slight changes to the standard “triangular mandible” are continuous towards crushing or piercing mandibles. However, specialized predatorial, distinctly elongated mandibles have no intermediate configurations. Despite convergently evolved mandible shapes, the musculature behind these modifications is more variable, indicating a many-to-one mapping of form to function in the moving machinery. These first results will be reinforced or contested by including more ant diversity and considering specifics of ant evolution, especially polymorphisms.