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183242

A GEOMETRIC-MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE HETEROCHELY IN THE RED SEA HERMIT CRAB “<i>CLIBANARIUS SIGNATUS</i>”, AND ITS DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY AND MODULARITY

Article

Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Fresh Water and Marine Biology

Abstract

Geometric-morphometric analysis is growingly used to quantify/analyse biological forms and discriminate among subtle variation in shape. The hermit crab “Clibanarius signatus" showed subtle heterochely; therefore, geometric-morphometric analysis helps to determine visually these shape changes. Individuals of “C. signatus" were collected from a mangrove site on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. The present study aimed to: "1" detect the different types of asymmetries in C. signatus by geometrics morphometrics, "2" inspect the responsibility of occupied shell type on the chelae asymmetry, "3" investigate the asymmetry-types' differences between sexes, "4" use the fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator for developmental stability, "5" and to investigate morphological, developmental, and functional modularity in the chela compartments. Directional and fluctuating asymmetries were detected; both showed high size levels in the males than in the females. The males revealed a high-level of shape directional symmetry and low-level of shape fluctuating asymmetry compared with the females. All investigated individuals showed larger right chela. The fluctuating asymmetry may be attributed to developmental instability as a result of occupying dextral shells. The integration and modularity of the chela compartments revealed two developmental modules, which morphologically and functionally integrated as one module. The individual variation and the fluctuating asymmetry showed similar patterns indicating that the same developmental processes are contributed to the chela shape variation. The present results are indicative signs that environmental stress is present and sufficient to produce asymmetry in chelae size/shape. However, this asymmetry was subtle, suggesting that it does not produce notable variation in the chelae functions.

DOI

10.21608/ejz.2021.77508.1056

Keywords

Developmental stability, directional asymmetry, fluctuating asymmetry, Geometrics morphometrics, modularity

Authors

First Name

Tarek

Last Name

Ismail

MiddleName

G.

Affiliation

Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt

Email

t_gad_2000@science.sohag.edu.eg

City

Sohag

Orcid

0000-0002-4361-5588

Volume

76

Article Issue

76

Related Issue

29231

Issue Date

2021-12-01

Receive Date

2021-05-25

Publish Date

2021-12-01

Page Start

30

Page End

51

Print ISSN

1110-6344

Online ISSN

2682-3160

Link

https://ejz.journals.ekb.eg/article_183242.html

Detail API

https://ejz.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=183242

Order

15

Type

Original Research Papers

Type Code

684

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Zoology

Publication Link

https://ejz.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

A GEOMETRIC-MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE HETEROCHELY IN THE RED SEA HERMIT CRAB “<i>CLIBANARIUS SIGNATUS</i>”, AND ITS DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY AND MODULARITY

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023