Lateral line sensory system in fossil fish, tetrapods, and water-land transitional species
Juan Liu, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
Lateral line sensory system, or lateral line organ, or simply the lateral line, is a system of sensory organs found in fish and some tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates). The lateral line enables those vertebrates to detect and perceive the hydrodynamic and physical environment they inhabit including movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water, and then process this sensory information by neuromast cells. The sensory pathway is presumably similar to the auditory pathway for hearing.
Lateral lines are diversified in both bony and cartilaginous fishes, functional in groups of non-amniote vertebrates, but completely disappeared in amniotes. The morphology of lateral lines is not only visible in extant vertebrates, but also preserved in the fossil record. This project focuses on the functional and anatomical changes of lateral lines along the evolutionary route from fish to early tetrapod with an emphasis on fossil taxa and the transitional species.
Role: The apprentice will be assisting in specimen preparation and processing, counting and measurements of specimens, and helping with photographing or CT image process. In particular, there will be a strong emphasis on wet lab work, where the apprentice will use acetic/formic acid to prepare fossil specimens from slabs of fossiliferous rock and frequently tend to fossils after the acid treatment.
The apprentice will gain experience and training in literature search, morphological and paleontological methods, and maybe 3D data visualization and analysis.
Qualifications: The candidate must be willing to learn and to work in a team. Reliable, organized, and communicative candidates are preferred. After training, the apprentice should be able to perform tasks independently.
All science majors will be considered, and curiosity in fish or all life will be appreciated.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Derrick Leong, Ph.D. candidate
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: https://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/liu/
Arts & Humanities Biological & Health Sciences