Congratulations to Ryan Byrne for successfully defending his MS thesis examining the variation in head photophore position and nasal rosette shape in one of the most common lanternfishes in the Gulf of Mexico. His work examined whether there was any evidence that the shapes of these sensory organs differ between juveniles, maturing individuals, mature males and female specimens, which may indicate whether or not these organs play a role in sexual selection within the species, or may be used for other purposes (e.g., predation / predator detection and avoidance).
We're working on a paper from this work, but if you can't wait for that I'll post a link to Ryan's thesis when it is archived with NSU's library.
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