Kory Evans studies shape change in the skull of fishes across their evolutionary history

Kory Evans, an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to study shape change in the skull of spiny ray-fin fishes (Acantomorpha) across their evolutionary history.

The highly-competitive grants, awarded to only about 500 faculty each year across all disciplines, support early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models and leaders in research and education.

The five-year award of $1,125,190 will support Evans’ investigation of the acanthomorph skull shape change across its 300-million-year history. The study will examine how modularity – the ability of disparate parts to form a functional whole – is involved in the evolution of this complex biological structure.

“The fish skull is actually one of the most complex biological structures on the planet,” Evans said. “It's composed of over 100 bones that are all interlocked and they can all move relative to each other. It's a very complex structure, and one of the questions that I've always had is how did this morphological complexity come about?”

https://news.rice.edu/news/2023/kory-...

#naturalscience #fish #marinebiology