Anaïs Schmidhauser

Master Student in the group of Prof. Walter Salzburger

Current Research

The caudal fin, also called tail fin, is located at the end of the fish’s caudal peduncle. Found in almost every fish species, this anatomical appendage is involved in the fish’s swimming performance and it’s wide variety of shapes serve specific locomotor functions.

The adaptive radiation of Lake Tanganyikan cichlids, showing high ecological, behavioral, and morphological diversity in a well-studied phylogenetic context, is thus a perfect study system for my research.

In my current project, I focus on the diversity of caudal fin shapes and sizes in Lake Tanganyikan cichlids, to analyze the variation within and between species, as well as between the two sexes. My goal is to better understand the link between this morphological diversity, the trophic ecology and the locomotion strategies inLake Tanganyikan cichlids.

Curriculum Vitae

2023-	M.Sc. in Animal Biology at the Zoological Institute, University of Basel
2019-2023:	B.Sc. in Biology, Major in Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Basel