Kaul Gena's research while affiliated with The Papua New Guinea University of Technology and other places

Specializing in different dietary niches via morphological adaptation underpins the success of animal radiation when invading a new environment, as seen in examples such as Darwin's finches (De León et al., 2014). Ecomorphological studies of various animal groups, from mammals to arthropods, illustrate adaptations to different food sources, which are often coupled with shifts in internal anatomy, particularly the digestive system (Duque-Correa et al., 2021; Griffen & Mosblack, 2011). A widely accepted pattern in terrestrial systems is that herbivorous mammals require longer and more voluminous gastrointestinal tracts in order to digest plant matter, whereas carnivorous mammals have smaller intestines since meat is much more digestible (Duque-Correa et al., 2021). Such research has mostly focused on animals in land-based ecosystems powered by photosynthesis, but these ecosystems only account for a fraction of the broad diversity of ecosystems on Earth. “Extreme” deep-sea ecosystems, such as hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps, and organic falls, are powered by microbial chemosynthesis (Childress & Girguis, 2011) and host numerous endemic fauna with special adaptations (Sogin et al., 2020), offering an opportunity to explore how the anatomy of animals evolved to specialize in unusual diets. Our results demonstrated that adapting to each peculiar deep-sea food source is linked to specific anatomical shifts, expanding the applicability of ecomorphology to a range of unusual diets. The deep sea remains little known and unexplored, despite its many habitats, including hydrothermal vents, which are being targeted for deep-sea mining, threatening endemic species (Thomas et al., 2022). Understanding the trophic dynamics in these systems and the role each species plays is crucial to successful conservation, yet numerous species have never been observed in their natural habitat. The accurate reconstruction of organ volumetrics using noninvasive methods, such as μ-CT scans, can be a useful tool in predicting the diet of deep-sea animals even when only preserved specimens are available, similarly to how ecomorphology has been used to reconstruct habitat preferences in fossil mammals (DeGusta & Vrba, 2005). This would clearly require the future accumulation of 3D anatomical data from a wide range of deep-sea species with various unique diets, which will undoubtedly reveal many anatomical surprises.