Address
Universität Basel,
Zoologisches Institut
Evolutionsbiologie
Vesalgasse 1
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Office
E0.03
Phone
+41 (0)61 267 03 02
Fax
+41 (0)61 267 03 01
Email
moritz.muschick-at-unibas.ch
Michael and Moritz, eager
to hear Felsenstein's talk
PhD student in the group of Walter Salzburger. Works on parallel evolution of trophic adaptations in cichlids.
I'm interested in the formation of morphological diversity and the share of contingency and determinism in its role in speciation.
How do convergent phenotypes arise? As solutions to identical selection pressures or as genomically and developmentally
constrained answers to more or less similar selection regimes?
To work on these questions the adaptive radiations of East African cichlid fishes provide a perfect setting. In them
adaptations to better exploit a vast range of food resources are thought to be a major driving force of speciation. Morphological changes
in their teeth and their oral and pharyngeal jaws enable them to handle food items like Aufwuchs, snails, insects
or scales from other fish with great success. The extra set of jaws in the throat, the pharyngeal jaws, is very versatile
in cichlids and its structure and the shape of the teeth vary extensively between species due to diet-specific adaptations.
These interspecific differences are well quantifiable using geometric morphometric approaches, whereas differences in diet
can be deduced by stomach content analysis and stable isotope analysis.
In my research project I'm going to correlate pharyngeal jaw structure, diet and phylogenetic relationship across many
cichlid species from Lake Tanganyika, Zambia, to find cases of convergent evolution in trophic adaptations. Subsequently,
I will try to find out about the genetic background of those traits in these species to see if convergence can be found in
gene expression patterns or in the genomes as well.
When I'm not at the bench or in Africa, I'm climbing in the nearby Jura, the indoor climbing-hall or the Alps or enjoy going out on weekends.
| Born 1980 in Germany | |
| 2007- | Graduate student in the Salzburger Group, University of Basel, Switzerland |
| 2001-2007 | M.sc at the Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Germany |