Identifying the evolutionary and developmental bases of adaptive phenotypes is of central interest in evolutionary biology.
several contradictory findings and open questions have emerged in recent years, challenging our understanding of this model.
Our understanding of the processes underpinning head asymmetry in P. microlepis, and polymorphism and adaptation in general, has considerably advanced in the recent decades. Nevertheless, we are far from resolving this evolutionary puzzle.
head asymmetry in this cichlid fish might be more complex than initially described.
many aspects of head asymmetry remain to be elucidated: (i) its phenotypic and ontogenetic patterning, (ii) the underlying genetic and non-genetic factors, (iii) the influence of negative frequency-dependent selection, and (iv) the association between morphological asymmetry and behavioral laterality in ontogeny and phylogeny.
Common Design 