STUDYING FISH MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY ACROSS EVOLUTIONARY SCALES
Morphology - Ecology - Function - Genes and Development
,mm
Research interests
I am broadly interested in the interrelationships between organismal properties and ecological factors that promote the diversification of animal form. I completed my Ph.D. in biology at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (Quebec, Canada) under the co-supervision of Dr. Richard Cloutier and Dr. Miriam L. Zelditch (University of Michigan). My doctoral thesis focused on the relationships between modularity, morphological disparity and evolutionary rates using fishes and their appendages as a model system. I then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Samantha Price’s laboratory at Clemson University where I studied ecological correlates of body shape evolution in teleost fishes. I completed a second postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Kory Evans's laboratory at Rice University where my research focused on analyzing patterns of integration/modularity among wrasses (Labridae). Most recently, I started a third postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Jacob Daane's lab at the University of Houston where I am using comparative genomics to investigate the genetic underpinnings of morphological variation amon ray-finned fishes.
RECENT AND CURRENT PROJECTS
ECOLOGICAL CORRELATES OFÂ BODY SHAPE EVOLUTION IN RAY-FINNED FISHES
Transitions between marine and freshwater environments involve important physiological challenges yet ray-finned fishes have been highly successful in repeatedly colonizing both of these habitats. Do these evolutionary transitions lead to convergence in body shape within each habitat or do they instead promote disparification?
PUBLICATIONS
*Undergraduate co-authors
2022
Larouche, O., S.M. Gartner, M.W. Westneat and K.M. Evans, 2022. Mosaic evolution of the skull in labrid fishes involves differences in both tempo and mode of morphological change. Systematic Biology (Accepted).
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Evans, K.M., O. Larouche, O., J.L. West, S.M. Gartner and M.W. Westneat, 2022. Burrowing constrains patterns of skull shape evolution in wrasses. Evolution & Development (In press).
Evans, K.M., T.J. Buser, O. Larouche and M.A. Kolmann, 2022. Untangling the relationship between developmental and evolutionary integration. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology (In press).
Price, S., S. Friedman, K. Corn, O. Larouche, K. Brockelsby*, A. Lee*, M. Nagaraj*, N. Bertrand*, M. Danao*, M. Coyne*, J. Estrada*, R. Friedman, E. Hoeft*, M. Iwan*, D. Gross*, J. Kao*, B. Landry*, M. Linares*, C. McGlinn*, J. Nguyen*, A. Proffitt*, S. Rodriguez*, M. Rupp*, E. Shen*, V. Susman*, A. Tovar*, L. Vary*, K. Zapfe, P. Wainwright, 2022. FishShapes v1: Functionally relevant measurements of teleost shape and size on three dimensions. Ecology (In Press).
Corn, K.A., S.T. Friedman, E.D. Burress, C.M. Martinez, O. Larouche, S.A. Price and P.C. Wainwright, 2022. The rise of grazing during the Cenozoic fueled reef fish body shape diversification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(31): e2119828119.
Berio, F., Y. Bayle, C. Riley, O. Larouche and R. Cloutier, 2022. Phenotypic regionalization of the vertebral column in the thorny skate Amblyraja radiata: Stability and variation. Journal of Anatomy 240(2): 253-267.
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2021
Evans, K.M., O. Larouche, S.-J. Watson*, S.C. Farina, M.L. Habegger, M. Friedman, 2021. Integration drives rapid phenotypic evolution in flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes: Carangaria). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(18): e2101330118.
Rhoda, D., M. Segall, O. Larouche, K.M. Evans and K. Angielczyk, 2021. Local superimpositions enable the morphometric analysis of complex articulating structures. Integrative and Comparative Biology 61(5): 1892-1904.
Martinez, C.M., S.T. Friedman, K.A. Corn, O. Larouche, S.A. Price and P.C. Wainwright, 2021. The deep sea is a hotspot of fish body shape evolution. Ecology Letters 24(9): 1788-1799.
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2020
Larouche, O., J.R. Hodge, L.R.V. Alencar, B. Camper*, D.S. Adams, K. Zapfe, S.T. Friedman, P.C. Wainwright, S.A. Price, 2020. Do key innovations unlock diversification? A case-study on the morphological and ecological impact of pharyngognathy in acanthomorph fishes. Current Zoology 66(5): 575-588.
Larouche, O., B. Benton*, K. Corn, S.T. Friedman, M. Iwan*, D. Gross*, B. Kessler*, C. Martinez, S. Rodriguez*, H. Whelpley*, P.C. Wainwright and S.A. Price, 2020. Reef-associated fishes have more maneuverable body shapes at a macroevolutionary scale. Coral Reefs 39(5): 1427-1439.
Friedman, S.T., S.A. Price, K.A. Corn, O. Larouche, C.M. Martinez and P.C. Wainwright, 2020. Body shape diversification along the benthic-pelagic axis in marine fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287(1931): 20201053.
Price, S.A., O. Larouche, S.T. Friedman, K.A. Corn, P.C. Wainwright and C.M. Martinez, 2020. A CURE for a major challenge in phenomics: A practical guide to implementing a quantitative specimen-based undergraduate research experience. Integrative Organismal Biology 2(1): obaa004.
Larouche, O., L. Jolicoeur and P. Calosi, 2020. Real-life Lernaean Hydras: A practical activity about the effects of oxygen concentration on regenerative capabilities of planarians. Journal of Biological Education 54(1): 98-107.
2019
Larouche, O., M.L. Zelditch and R. Cloutier, 2019. A critical appraisal of appendage disparity and homology in basal vertebrates. Fish and Fisheries 20(6): 1138-1175.
Price, S.A., S.T. Friedman, K.A. Corn, C.M. Martinez, O. Larouche and P.C. Wainwright, 2019. Building a body shape morphospace of teleostean fishes. Integrative and Comparative Biology 59(3): 716-730.
2018
Larouche, O., M.L. Zelditch and R. Cloutier, 2018. Modularity promotes morphological divergence in ray-finned fishes. Scientific Reports 8(7278): 1-6.
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2017
Larouche, O., M.L. Zelditch and R. Cloutier, 2017. Fin modules: An evolutionary perspective on appendage diversity in basal vertebrates. BMC Biology 15(1): 1-26.
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2015
Larouche, O., R. Cloutier and M.L. Zelditch, 2015. Head, body and fins: Patterns of morphological integration and modularity in fishes. Evolutionary Biology 42(3): 296-311.
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2014
Genard, B., O. Larouche, J.-L. Nicolas, P. Miner, M.-L. Beaudin and R. Tremblay, 2014. Effect of the probiotic strain Phaeobacter gallaeciensis after bacterial challenge on the complete larval development of Pecten maximus. Aquatic Living Ressources 27(1): 27-34.
CONTACT
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX
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