Ecomorphology of fishes

Ecomorphology is the comparative study of the influence of morphology on ecological relationships and the evolutionary impact of ecological factors on morphology in different life intervals, populations, species, communities, and evolutionary lineages. This study reviews early attempts at qualitative descriptions of ecomorphological patterns in fishes, especially those of the Russian school. More recent, quantitative studies are emphasised, including multivariate approaches to ecomorphological analysis, the selection of functionally important ecological and morphological variables to analyze, an experimental approach using performance tests to examine specific hypotheses derived from functional morphology, and the evolutionary interpretations of ecomorphological patterns. Six major areas of fish biology are focused on: feeding, sensory systems, locomotion, respiration, reproduction, and phylogenetic relationships.