@article {587,
	title = {Morphological differentiation in African weakly electric fish (genus Campylomormyrus) relates to substrate preferences},
	journal = {Evolutionary Ecology},
	year = {2020},
	month = {Apr-04-2021},
	abstract = {<p>Under an ecological speciation scenario, the radiation of African weakly electric fish (genus Campylomormyrus) is caused by an adaptation to different food sources, associated with diversification of the electric organ discharge (EOD). This study experimentally investigates a phenotype\&ndash;environment correlation to further support this scenario. Our behavioural experiments showed that three sympatric Campylomormyrus species with significantly divergent snout morphology differentially react to variation in substrate structure. While the short snout species (C. tamandua) exhibits preference to sandy substrate, the long snout species (C. rhynchophorus) significantly prefers a stone substrate for feeding. A third species with intermediate snout size (C. compressirostris) does not exhibit any substrate preference. This preference is matched with the observation that long-snouted specimens probe deeper into the stone substrate, presumably enabling them to reach prey more distant to the substrate surface. These findings suggest that the diverse feeding apparatus in the genus Campylomormyrus may have evolved in adaptation to specific microhabitats, i.e., substrate structures where these fish forage. Whether the parallel divergence in EOD is functionally related to this adaptation or solely serves as a prezygotic isolation mechanism remains to be elucidated.</p>
},
	issn = {0269-7653},
	doi = {10.1007/s10682-020-10043-3},
	url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10682-020-10043-3},
	author = {Amen, Rahma and Nagel, Rebecca and Hedt, Maximilian and Kirschbaum, Frank and Ralph Tiedemann}
}
@article {559,
	title = {Electric pulse characteristics can enable species recognition in African weakly electric fish species},
	journal = {Scientific Reports},
	volume = {8},
	year = {2018},
	month = {Jan-12-2018},
	abstract = {<p>Communication is key to a wide variety of animal behaviours and multiple modalities are often involved in this exchange of information from sender to receiver. The communication of African weakly electric fish, however, is thought to be predominantly unimodal and is mediated by their electric sense, in which species-specific electric organ discharges (EODs) are generated in a context-dependent and thus variable sequence of pulse intervals (SPI). While the primary function of the electric sense is considered to be electrolocation, both of its components likely carry information regarding identity of the sender. However, a clear understanding of their contribution to species recognition is incomplete. We therefore analysed these two electrocommunication components (EOD waveform and SPI statistics) in two sympatric mormyrid Campylomormyrus species. In a set of five playback conditions, we further investigated which components may drive interspecific recognition and discrimination. While we found that both electrocommunication components are species-specific, the cues necessary for species recognition differ between the two species studied. While the EOD waveform and SPI were both necessary and sufficient for species recognition in C. compressirostris males, C. tamandua males apparently utilize other, non-electric modalities. Mapped onto a recent phylogeny, our results suggest that discrimination by electric cues alone may be an apomorphic trait evolved during a recent radiation in this taxon.</p>
},
	doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-29132-z},
	url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29132-z},
	author = {Nagel, Rebecca and Frank Kirschbaum and Hofmann, Volker and Engelmann, Jacob and Ralph Tiedemann}
}
