Evolution of Form and Function: Morphology and Swimming Performance in North American Minnows

ABSTRACT

We tested for the ability to predict burst swimming performance in 15 species of North American minnows from body morphology. We used principal components analysis (PCA) to reduce 14 morphological variables into five axes that were used as predictors of swimming performance among species. Comparisons of swimming performance were among fish species with and without phylogenetic control. Four of our PCA axes were significant predictors of swimming performance with no phylogenetic control. However, comparisons with independent contrasts did not result in any significant predictors of performance from our PCA axes of body morphology. Thus, analyses with phylogenetic control can provide results very different from analyses without such control.