Integration and evolution of the cichlid pharyngeal skeleton: Seeking the causes and consequences of trait covariation

The evolutionary success of animals has been facilitated by the expansion and diversification of serially homologous elements. The vertebrate pharyngeal skeleton exemplifies this process. Evolved from a uniform series of cartilaginous rods, different elements have evolved distinct shapes and functions over time. This process implies that the evolution of the pharyngeal skeleton involved the decoupling of its constituent elements; however, to ensure functionality, a level of connectivity must be maintained. Thus, the evolution of the pharyngeal skeleton is likely influenced by a balance of diversifying and unifying forces. We probe these ideas using East African cichlid fishes. Shape analyses in a sample of 75 ecologically diverse species and a large F5 hybrid population showed a conspicuous lack of independence. Nearly all elements were correlated, a pattern reflected in the genotype-phenotype map and associated with co-expression of the candidate gene, smad7. Results are discussed in t..., , # Data from: Integration and evolution of the cichlid pharyngeal skeleton: Seeking the causes and consequences of trait covariation

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.brv15dvq3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.brv15dvq3)

## Description of the data and file structure

Landmark data are all 3D (x,y,z) and were collected in Slicer Morph. The files are saved as .tsp with sliders specified in associated .csv files. 

Expression data were collected from quantitative RT-PCR. 

Shape data for mapping are principal component (PC) scores, from the first 3 PC axes for each bone.  

### Files and variables

#### File: African_Cichlid_shape-20260216T155510Z-1-001.zip

**Description:** Raw landmark data and associated slider (e.g., semi-landmarks) files, for each bone from the across-species dataset. 

The landmark files are .tps formatted and may be read into *geomorph* (v4.0.8) in R. The three columns of numbers represent x,y, and z coordinates. Each landmark set is labeled with an \"ID\" at the bottom, wh..., ,